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Italy busts ring trafficking retro video games from China

https://www.yahoo.com/news/italy-busts-ring-trafficking-retro-085211789.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMk3svXbhYgY3jA6d0ej_eDvpH-VGL3sH1nNOuLwVeGLi7JG0rLK4_2l6CWhiX3LaeIknXCq4FF--CoYOWUmG_hxzzdLo-Th0vy26UQRldc9JwXJGXbl8gjxSbCmmHZu6R9mgJqVPZDuw0Av9dzfIwjUWv1m3rN_GK9rcUWxq4W1

Italy's financial police said Friday they have dismantled a ring trafficking counterfeit vintage video game consoles from China containing some of the most popular titles of the 1980s and 90s."These games featured well-known characters from the world of video games from the 1980s and 1990s, all protected by copyright, part of the phenomenon of so-called 'retrogaming', which is experiencing a phase of strong popularity and commercial expansion," a police statement said.

Italy busts ring trafficking retro video games from China

Not much info here but I wonder if these were some sort of fake NES/SNES/Mega Drive minis or just handheld emulation devices in general

I was wondering if shipping SD cards full of ROMs would ever come to bite the manufacturers in the ass and I guess it might have. Will this be a one-off thing or a sign of a wider EU crackdown? I think there was a warning earlier issued by some agency this month about how the solder in one of the Anbernic devices exceeded EU's maximum lead levels

Edit: There's a video of the Italian cops' raid on the warehouse where the devices were being held, looks like a large variety of different devices

https://youtu.be/U4lYIzijJSU?si=mmvXSsipSaMEnaOv

60 comments

unperson

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12,000 consoles … for an estimated value of more than 47.5 million euros.

Each console costs 40 grand? doubt

doublepepperoni

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It's hilarious when they apply the same math they use to calculate the worth of drug busts to something like this

FourteenEyes

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Software licensing. For games you literally can't buy anymore in most cases.

Awoo

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They probably have 1000 games on each console that you can select from in a list and they're pricing based on that. Ridiculous.

EmoThugInMyPhase

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Findom_DeLuise

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Black Book of Cummunism-ass "math"

Beaver

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he-laughed

CliffordBigRedDog

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What is the charge?

Enjoying a game? Enjoying a succulent Chinese retro game?

doublepepperoni

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The most diabolical of crimes: copyright infringement

Enjoyer_of_Games

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side-eye-1

GrouchyGrouse

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Italy still mad that China has evidence of inventing noodles first

Alunyanners

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...yet people still call it noodles instead of 面/miàn 😭

PolandIsAStateOfMind

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Iirc remains of fast food bars which most likely served noodles were found even in ancient Troy, ancient Rome definitely had those too, but the Italians went backward so much they even have a legend that Marco Polo brought noodles from China. In reality noodles in Italia most likely appeared by the same route as everything else in antiquity, from Greeks (often with Etruscan middlemanning).

GrouchyGrouse

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The Romans were such jerks to wipe out the Etruscans. An obviously influential civilization that we know too little about because (if we believe the Roman accounts) Rome punched them to smithereens.

PolandIsAStateOfMind

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They didn't wipe out Etruscans. Even Etruscan culture was incredibly similar to Roman to begin with. Hell you can even say that Roman culture was a product of Etruscan influence, Romans taken from Etruscans basically everything. There's even theory that Rome literally was founded by Etruscans. And then the card swiched, Etruscans assimilated into broad Latin culture, but they are still there, the people of modern Tuscany are their direct descendants.

ClimateChangeAnxiety

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Around 12,000 consoles with 47 million games

No. That is incorrect. Each console had a few thousand games, and you did bullshit math to make that sound worse. Each copy of a rom does not count as an individual video game, that’s an insane way to measure things.

doublepepperoni

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10 grams of Mario would be worth 50k on the streets according to Cop Math™️

ClimateChangeAnxiety

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Like, this would mean that if I took a rom for Super Mario Bros and hit ctrl-c ctrl-v 10,000 times you could say I have 10,000 video games. Thats insanity.

doublepepperoni

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I'm pretty sure Nintendo's lawyer ghouls would argue you just described illegally producing 10,000 illegal copies of SMB and would need to be punished accordingly

AndJusticeForAll

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Infinite crime.

ClimateChangeAnxiety

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Which is why Nintendo’s lawyers deserve barbara-pit

Hell, most lawyers in general, but especially IP lawyers.

SorosFootSoldier

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I'm freebasing Mario Sunshine, fuck the police.

GalaxyBrain

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Going into a Fluddhole

sawne128

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But what about those Famicom cassettes on which it is written "9999999 games in 1!"?

bigbrowncommie69

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Why crack down on people traffickers when you can take down some video game smugglers instead

doublepepperoni

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People aren't eating counterfeit Sega Saturns before they board a plane from China, some Italians were presumably just ordering retro emulation devices in bulk from China

bortsampson

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Anbernic is fine. They don't directly ship roms on cards. They probably got a bunch of those cheap ESP32 8bit devices that come loaded with every NES game. Fuck Italy and fuck IP law. I'm not a Chomsky fan but he is right about IP. It's a tool used to supress industry in the global south.

doublepepperoni

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I'm pretty sure they do ship sd cards with roms though, unless it's the resellers on AE who supply those

bortsampson

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It's resellers. Anbernic insulated themselves a few years ago.

doublepepperoni

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Didn't they just have a bit of a controversy over the summer where they were going to start preloading their Linux-based consoles with Portmaster ports?

The way it's supposed to work is that you supply the game files yourself the way the Super Mario 64 PC port does it

From what I understand Anbernic was about to just add the games already ported which caused the retro emulation scene to beg them not to do it

bortsampson

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The "Official" Ali store is an official reseller. Anbernic supposedly just makes the hardware and is out of direct to consumer sales. I'm not familiar with the portmaster controversy but if true (damn that would be nice lol) that's not not a good look. Do you have any links? I suppose they could just change names and continue operating even if they had their US pressence shut down.

doublepepperoni

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Found a link- what happened was that the files were apparently going to be included in a firmware update

https://retrohandhelds.gg/retro-handhelds-weekly-edition-3/

Anbernic made a few waves of its own this week, but not for the reasons you might have hoped. While we are nearing the launch of the RG40XX, Anbernic released a new firmware update for the RG35XX H. This update turns Anbernic’s handheld into a 64-bit Linux system, along with adding native support for PC ports. These include titles such as Celeste, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, GTA III, and even Stardew Valley.

The problem is that by including these titles with the latest firmware update, Anbernic is relying on pirated content. That’s an obvious no-no, especially considering that in order to use Ports, you need to have actually purchased the game and transferred the necessary files. Portmaster responded stating explaining its stance, complete with a “Zero Tolerance Policy.” Since the video was published, Anbernic has removed the download to the new build that includes the ports.

These retro handhelds are probably already flying a bit too close to the sun as it is- they probably shouldn't be trying to attract even more attention, especially from companies like Take Two. It's good that they listened to Western users' concerns

bortsampson

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I didn't even realize how advanced portmaster had gotten. I just want to play Fallout NV on one of these cheap handhelds. It's felt like they have been 1 generation away for years now.

You are right though. The crackdown is coming. They are pushing up against the IPs that still make companies lots of money. Definitely smart of them to pull the firmware. Pretty cool to see a company listen to the community.

doublepepperoni

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I don't think you can play Fallout NV on a cheap handheld just yet- if you go look at the Android emulation subreddit you'll notice most posts are people playing various PC games through Winlator on current high end phones.

The most demanding PC game Anbernic showed was GTA III

SorosFootSoldier

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I'm sure the wealthy kulaks that hoard retro video games and sell them at collector prices will be pleased.

UlyssesT

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Nintendo loves to sell overpriced retro nostalgia crap, like mini-consoles that have laughably few games and forcibly cram in Ice Climbers as one of the few offerings.

doublepepperoni

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I think the age of the retro mini console is over, it's all about subscription services now

UlyssesT

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I think the age of the retro mini console is over

dean-smile

it's all about subscription services now

dean-frown

doublepepperoni

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How about... cloud-based subscription services?

agony-mescaline

Pretty sure that's Sony's approach to their back catalogue

UlyssesT

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Oh boy more shit that will vanish the moment a suit feels like it! :AgonyRossScott:

doublepepperoni

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I'm going to become one of those great reset guys except about cloud gaming

bortsampson

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Probably end of consoles in general at this point.

PolandIsAStateOfMind

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I remember getting hyped about PSX re-release only to find out it's not real PSX, basically a fucking scam.

doublepepperoni

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Infinitely easier just to stick some sort of Raspberry Pie type deal in a console-shaped box

GalaxyBrain

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"Don Cicio! The bootleg game consoles have been seized by la carabinieri!"

Findom_DeLuise

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Mario sleeps with the fishes.

GalaxyBrain

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Nice!

ShinkanTrain

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Real Gs buy chinese flashcarts and fill them with ROMs themselves 🫡

polskilumalo

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Finding retro hardware for cheap at flohmarkts has only gotten harder and harder with each year :sadness:

Chronicon

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no-fun-allowed

Rojo27

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Braver than the troops rat-salute

peeonyou

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thank god! i don't know how many nights of sleep have been lost over that whole fiasco. the amount of profits that some non-existing companies probably could have missed out on is unthinkable

Krem

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I wonder if these were some sort of fake NES/SNES/Mega Drive minis or just handheld emulation devices in general

the most common ones i've seen are

1: game boy that is actually an NES emulator with 999 games on it (with a usb port you can plug a fake NES controller into and play 2P)

and 2: the bar/coffee shop version which is a small arcade machine with two sticks and two buttons and is usually an NES or SNES emulator with a game selection screen. this one sometimes has qr codes to scan and pay with weixin/alipay before you can play

doublepepperoni

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The Anbernic/Retroid/etc generic emulation devices should be completely safe if they dropped the bundled roms, but on the other hand I suspect those sd cards are a big reason why the devices sell in the first place

Waldoz53

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first they came for the Gamers...

SkingradGuard

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Lmao what a waste of resources for emulators

Diuretic_Materialism

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Real Rebels of the Neon God moment