You know SNES emulators like Snes9x and ZSNES? They have certain graphics engines integrated into them which resize the graphics without distortion by 'guessing' the pixels. SuperEagle, 2XSaI etc. Those might ring a bell. The graphics produced by these programs aren't the original graphics, right? They are redrawn by the program to make them look good. So if you rip those resized graphics, they merely resemble the original graphic, but aren't. So if you use a SuperEagle Mario in your game, but call him Tom, and sell your game, what happens? Is it illegal? It isn't the original graphic and you're not naming him the same name. Any copyright issues which can occur here? I'm wondering NOT because I'm planning to sell my game, but just because I may have an advertisement or two on the site on which it is hosted, or maybe even in the game. I don't want the game company from which I "borrowed" the character to come around and start complaining, so just wondering...
I tell you, I've seen games of Mario where the main character is a handdrawn graphic of Mario, and his name is Zario or something, know what I'm saying? Is it illegal to sell those kind of games?
Well if you think about it (omg did I just say think on tdc), if you don't own the game the rom is illegal anyway, and the way in which the graphics are displayed does not make a difference because it is a projection of the original image. Just like a tv will blend pixels together, you can't say "this image doesn't resemble the exact broadcasted image so I can claim it as my own" - if you could, you could say resizing an image gave you the right to use it. Ultimately the copyrighted image is the image you see no matter how it is displayed, 14inch CRT or 17" tft, so adding other effects to peoples images does not deny them of their copyright over it.
Also, I heard somewhere on a forum that all fangames were illegal, even if you don't use them to advertise or make money, but big companies don't have departments which go around on the net to examine fan games, which is why so many still exist. How true is that?
And PixElf, what about someone who hand draws the image, like those Mario sprites you see all around the web. If someone were to use one of those in a game, would THAT be illegal too? All the 'RULES' of this copyright thing are confusing me... I guess there are no specifics.
Basically if it in any way shape or form resembles "Mario" then it is open for a law suit.
Say you create a character called "SuperFancyPantsMan" that everyone loved and stuff and wanted to make fan games of it to sell and make money. Would it still be "SuperFancyPantsMan" even if they redrew it? I think it is.
"They have certain graphics engines integrated into them which resize the graphics without distortion by 'guessing' the pixels. SuperEagle, 2XSaI etc. Those might ring a bell. The graphics produced by these programs aren't the original graphics, right? They are redrawn by the program to make them look good."
It's only a filter, so it's still the original graphics.
Each company has it's own ideas about the legality or Fangames. But most of them aren't too bothered about fangames unless they are giving their franchise a bad image. But you most certainly can't sell a game based on their creations.
Anyway if you don't put the effort into making your own graphics, why would anyone buy your game? They'll think you are being lazy.
"Anyway if you don't put the effort into making your own graphics, why would anyone buy your game? They'll think you are being lazy."
I'm not going to sell a fangame or anything but I'm just saying ... Won't a normal person buy a game if its fun, even if they think the creator was lazy? I don't think they would care about the laziness of the creator as long as the game is fun, but whatever. I don't know...
Well it's unliklely anyone will buy your game unless it looks really good. There are some amazingly good freeware games out there so you would need to do something special.
Yeah, especially a Mario-like character would be a bad idea. Nintendo is a lot like Ragnar's Wolves (let's see someone get THAT reference, LOL) in that they are reknowned for running down their enemies to the last man. Not long ago some Korean game's characters looked a LOT like a certain cel-shaded hero whose name rhymes with "Dink" and they shut down that operation fast. They really look out for that kind of thing. It's best to create your own characters anyways.
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I think it's a trademark/copyright infringement to even have something that resembles mario.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Copyright by its nature is a right of an individual, not a power of a court. It's determined and imposed - not by the courts - but by the copyright holder. The copyright holder determines what is and isn't fair use of his creations, and the courts' sole responsibility is to enforce his wishes.
Most games companies tolerate the creation of fangames (NOT Roms), and some even encourage it. It's part of having a fanbase, and it's good business. They *could* make it illegal, but they graciously choose to overlook it.
However, there have been cases where a fangame becomes so popular that it rivals the official products. Imagine a Zelda fangame that was so popular and well designed that it came to have more influence over the world's view of the Zelda characters than Nintendo did!
In those cases the owner company calls their lawyers and the big blue sky of copyright falls with a loud resounding 'FwOof!'
Unfortunately, you need to determine which is a more serious risk - the wrath of the Nintendo Corporation when somehow your game rivals their own enormously popular professional products that gross thousands per annum worldwide; or the wrath of the click community for posting a game where you didn't even bother to design your own main character sprite
Actually, Nintendo has gotten much better about letting fan-games come out. They've begun to realize that it doesn't hurt their business. Before they were extremely protective of the Metroid and Zelda franchises, sending C&D letters to anyone who tried to make one; but that practice has gone the way of the DoDo. Just look at Metroid Prime 2D for example; they had an article published in EGM and Nintendo hasn't told them to stop.
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