Some time ago, bootlegged (pirate) copies of various Sonic the Hedgehog ROM hacks (game mods) started appearing on the Internet and in game stores. I believe the first one impacted was Sonic Mega Mix. Recently, I noticed that both the box and cart artwork now incorporate the Sonic Retro logo. (Images and links below.) Curious to hear what others think about this matter, and what (if any) response Sonic Retro should make. Also curious to hear what folks think about others making money off of someone else's work, (IE the ROM Hacks). I don't believe these carts are selling at "break even" prices. https://retrogamersus.com/products/sonic-the-hedgehog-mega-mix-sega-genesis?variant=32351959613518 https://retrogamersus.com/products/sonic-lost-worlds-sega-genesis?_pos=1&_sid=126338b02&_ss=r https://retrogamersus.com/products/...lver-sega-genesis?_pos=3&_sid=8c14d5c73&_ss=r https://www.etsy.com/listing/1040262272/sonic-classic-heroes-sega-genesis-video
While I'm not a fan of people profiting off others works, I can at least respect that they do attribute the hacks to coming from Retro. And I can't help but admit that I'd really want my own hacks on a cart just to have something tangible to hold and say "I made this".
They’ve been around for a long while. It’s definitely kind of scummy but I don’t really think it’s all that different from selling repro carts, just instead of an official release it’s of a romhack. Granted I never worked on any of these so I don’t have the same attachment I probably would if I did. Is the Retro logo even under any kind of copyright? As far as I’m aware it’s all open for anyone to use outside of potentially causing drama.
Oh yeah, these have been around a long long time - I seem to remember an event a bunch of us attended in the UK where there was a Megamix cart on a console for play. Having Cinossu sitting down at it playing a bootleg of a game he himself had worked on was somewhat amusing to all of us =P I'm not sure what we CAN do, really - the logo is likely on the box purely because there's a Retro splash screen on the cart and whoever made the boxart figured it should be on the box for some consistency between releases or something.
There are bootlegs where the descriptions on the back of the box were lifted verbatim from Sega Retro. As in, words I typed. I posted a photo somewhere - can't find it now. You used to be able to buy Sonic hacks in seconds from AliExpress, but their search isn't bringing up many results, so maybe they clamped down on that practice.
I bought a copy of Sonic Megamix from Russia about 10 years ago because I thought it was hilarious they were selling a romhack as a bootleg. That bootleg was terrible quality, not least of which because it had no battery to save with haha.
I only have one issue with those repro carts, the K-A logo was never colored in and I always cringe when I see repros using the rating colored in. The ESRB ratings didn't start coloring in their ratings until after the K-A rating was replaced with E for Everyone. But bootlegs have been around for years, I don't see them pop up on places like Aliexpress as much but they're still sold on Ebay.
Just going to echo what others have said here. The first time I saw these, with the Retro branding, was years ago at a convention. I was both amused and befuddled by the fact they existed. Mentioned the fact they existed in a private chat, and moved on. I felt no need to try and engage with the vendors about what they were selling. The last time I went to MAGfest, I was with someone who saw these bootleg carts and wanted to say something to the vendor. They were dissuaded by others in the group, and as far as I know, did not go back and say anything to them later. Tables are bound to pop up, and the people selling these carts might not even fully understand what they're selling. Someone just handing them a bunch of stock and asking them to sell it on their behalf. Is it right for them to make money on other people's work? Not really. I'm sure that the individuals making and selling these are not doing it at cost, but I also question how much they actually make. I don't know how many people are actively purchasing these - I know I didn't see them run out of stock when I witnessed it being sold in person. If someone who worked on one of these romhacks wanted to pursue legal action, they are more than welcome to do so. I'm not exactly sure how it would all work out in a legal sense, as it's technically ip owned by others. But on Retro's end, I don't think there is much reason for us to go after any of these sellers, digital or otherwise. It should be very clear to anyone that we are not the one creating and selling these bootleg carts. The romhacks we do have on our site are available for free, with no links to direct people to where they can buy a reproduction. If anyone was confused and came to us asking about them, it would not take much to clear up said confusion. I would personally discourage anyone from buying these carts. If anyone wanted to play these games on real hardware, there are other options. Support the actual creators of these works in whatever way makes sense. And if you wanted a dedicated single cart of any game, have yourself a bit of a DIY project.
another consideration: I mentioned the cart I bought was of abysmal quality, to the point where people should probably be legitimately worried about them harming their console. Voltage leveling can be a problem, but even more than that, the cart I bought had no beveled edge to the cart pins, they were like a block. Meaning inserting the cartridge into my Genesis would bend the pins in a way that could break them, unlike a real official cartridge. And after a long time, the cart stopped working and emitted a funny smell. I flat out avoid bootlegs like this personally.
Along with voltage issues bootleg carts don't usually have save chips or batteries, so any games or hacks with save functions just won't track progress. It's for this exact reason I put in detection for that scenario in one of my upcoming projects: Just as a precaution if my hack does end up bootlegged. The method of doing so is simple btw. Check if save data is present If none, run through your initialization functions Check again If there's no save data once more, then you're using a cart with no battery.
Oh, boi. Welcome to the internet! They are exits very long time. I know 100% that sites like AliExpress has cartridges with Sonic 3 Complete (with save feature btw), Sonic 3D Blast DX, Sonic 2 XL, Characters hacks, and others. I even saw one that had SNDK logo (popular Rusian Sonic youtube blogger, I don't think that he is somehow connected with this.) in place of Sega quality control. My opinion? Eh. It would be a weird if hackers started to prevent piracy, while using piracy as a tool (yeah, now go and tell me that you bought a licensed cartridge in the shop, dumped it yourself, and use a rom as a base, instead of online download, yeah.) It's more like replica of official cartridges, and I know that some developers of hacks are not mad about it. What about me? I'm ok if somebody will want to make cartridge with my hack(s), just don't use a cover art that suck too much.
Right? If you're gonna bootleg my stuff at the very least please use some nicer box art. That S-Factor box is atrocious with the style clashing. Thankfully I'm an artist so I can at least make the box art myself...
Sonic 3 Complete was at least nice enough to give us official art for repo use. I'd worry more about Sega's trademarks... and the copyright for Sonic appearing (not legal advice!).
Send them a scare mail. I work for a retro game store that sells bootleg hacks despite my warnings. If their management is anything like mine, they'll fold from any slightly threatening external scrutiny and cut the shit.
