Just bring back the anti-piracy measures they used with Earthbound on the NES. If the game detected that it was being played on an unlicensed cartridge then it would ramp up the difficulty to an almost unplayable level and randomly flash messages reminding you that piracy is a crime, and if you managed to get to the final boss the game would crash and erase your save data. It was cruel, hilarious and probably taught a few people a lesson

I had never heard of this, so I started wondering if it was true. I went to Google to find the answer. The Earthbound 0 ROM apparently has three versions of the ROM floating around that defeat different areas of the anti-piracy in the game code.

There’s also apparently some anti-piracy stuff in Earthbound for SNES too. That seems to be what the fellow above is referring to.

I think making the game so difficult to be unplayable is an excellent way to combat piracy personally, although games like Demons Souls raises the bar on how difficult we have to make it before gamers give up.

This idea originated from a Russian programmer Eugene Alemzhin who originally developed the game “Shariki” in 1988 for DOS PC’s. The object was to match three balls of the game color. This causes the balls to disappear and new balls to come in to take their place. Fascinating, eh? More information and other links at the Wikipedia page linked to below.

Wikipedia Article on Shariki

It was suggested today that I help organize the WVU student chapter of the International Game Developers Association. The idea is that programmers and artists who are interested in game design can meet and share ideas, collaborate, and other things. We can get game industry professionals to do seminars and, of course, do huge LAN parties. This would also help jump start the game development cirriculum for bachelor’s and masters students that’s currently being developed.

This also means I have to pick my battles. I had earlier wanted to try starting a 2600 group in Morgantown. I’m far more interested in the IGDA chapter. I’d definitely still participate in a 2600 group, but I don’t think I’d choose that when given the option to choose between the two.

I shared my previous experience with planning LAN parties with the advisor, and he seemed very interested in the way the events were used to promote the department in exchange for equipment. In short, it all sounded doable except with a WVU-sized budget. Being a school organization also gives access to rooms such as the NRCCE expo room which is roughly twice the size of the Tech Center Ballroom. This appears from the outside to be the opportunity to plan the LAN party I’ve dreamed of with all of the resources I’ve ever wanted. On the other hand, I haven’t dealt very much with the department, so Admiral Ackbar may have useful input on this. I also have to consider if I can keep up with my school, research, and work responsibilities with the added leadership responsibility. I must remeber that I am a student first and foremost.

If you’re a WVU student who is seeking a degree in Computer Science or an Arts degree that would be associated with some form of digital art or design for video games, weigh in on the comments of Facebook or my blog @ praisechaos.com. Feel free to share this information to those who would be interested. If you’re interested in a huge Morgantown LAN party, let me know as well. This won’t be starting until next semester, so I’ve got some time to mull it over.

EDIT: Okay, let’s see if this works this time.

Rather than creating our own community blog system and trying to get users to write on our blogs as well as theirs, I thought it would be better to just let you specify which posts are gaming-related and might be of interest to the MSG community.

Look for a full website very soon!