so Steam is selling unlicensed games now?

[Devoladraco]

I just saw this game on sale and I couldn't believe it was released for Steam. back in the 90s, it was a cheap clone of Wolfesntien 3D for the SNES made by Wisdom Tree christian awful company and it needed the use of a bypass engine like Game Genie to run the game because of the lockout chip created by Nintendo to forbiden piracy... and now it's on Steam?
so, based on that, it's ok for me to abandom original games I bought here in Steam and start pirating? it seems Steam are desperetally to sell any games regard of its origin.

[bep]

Read the FAQ

[DogMeat]

Try reading the FAQ at the top of the page bright spark.

[Lunick]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/371180/discussions/0/598198356189183291/

I'll provide the link :D

[Devoladraco]

the FAQ doesn't clarify nothing about facts, it just says that Wisdom Tree claims that they bought the license but nothing more. I was there when they realesed the game for SNES and the game need the Game Genie to brake the lockout chip, so it wasn't licensed at all.
but Christian companies tend to infringe copyrights very often as you can see in books, movies, music and games as well. so it's not a surprise at all, my only surprise is Steam realeasing an unlicensed game.
Rock'n Roll Racing reboot was canceled because Blizzard claimed they didn't licensed the Steam Greenlight version. but that happened only after several copies were sold and I wonder if the gamers were refund at all.
but don't mind me if you like the game and want to buy an unlicensed game and a poor clone of Wolfenstein 3D when you can buy the original here on Steam. I rather prefer the original but that's me.

[bep]

man, you really have no idea what licensing means, do you? the game being unlicensed on the SNES has nothing to do with the licensing of the engine and therefore nothing to do with this version of the game. wisdom tree paid for the wolf3D engine just like everyone else who used the engine did. this game isn't "unlicensed" in any way.

and i bought this game because i've beaten wolf3D like 40 times now. something fresh is a good change of pace.

[🌎Earth]

There was a PC version by the way, so whatever the case was with the SNES version is irrelevant since this is an enhancement of the PC version.

[DogMeat]

A post on another thread from Mr. Windblade that I believe applies here.

The idea that Super Noah's Ark 3D was actually illegal to distribute was a popular myth back in the day, but fully untrue. It stemmed from the fact that Wisdom Tree's games were among the very few games that were unlicensed games born from reverse engineering and an unofficial devkit.

People assumed that Nintendo's licensing system was a legal matter and not a marketing matter, but those people were wrong. In reality, many game manufacturers of the day would "coerce" console manufacturers into licensing their titles since they'd already been made - a popular example being Electronic Arts and Sega, where Sega refused to offer real devkits to EA, so EA made their own unofficial devkits and sold their games anyways.

The thing is, Wisdom Tree isn't a huge company and didn't have the kind of retail power that EA had, along with Nintendo's infamous policies on censorship/neutrality, and had no means of getting their official license.

So Wisdom Tree reverse engineered Nintendo's cartridges, made their own versions of them, and distributed them all on their own. None of this is or was illegal at any point in the history of gaming - homebrew never has been illegal, even if it requires unlicensed modification of hardware. The most legal recourse Nintendo would have against Wisdom Tree is patent infringement, but since the cartridges that Wisdom Tree made are clearly not the same as Nintendo's, there is nothing there either.

All of this is still a moot point considering this port is based on the DOS version as mentioned by Earth.

[Mr Windblade]

Originally posted by DevolaDraco GTX 760 Powah!:

the FAQ doesn't clarify nothing about facts, it just says that Wisdom Tree claims that they bought the license but nothing more. I was there when they realesed the game for SNES and the game need the Game Genie to brake the lockout chip, so it wasn't licensed at all.
but Christian companies tend to infringe copyrights very often as you can see in books, movies, music and games as well. so it's not a surprise at all, my only surprise is Steam realeasing an unlicensed game.
Rock'n Roll Racing reboot was canceled because Blizzard claimed they didn't licensed the Steam Greenlight version. but that happened only after several copies were sold and I wonder if the gamers were refund at all.
but don't mind me if you like the game and want to buy an unlicensed game and a poor clone of Wolfenstein 3D when you can buy the original here on Steam. I rather prefer the original but that's me.

Of course, licensing isn't copyright, and Super Noah's Ark never needed the Game Genie to run, it required a licensed cartridge attached to it so that you could bypass the lockout chip. Of course, the the lockout chip isn't a legal barrier but a Nintendo barrier - so bypassing it is totally fine.

Nintendo's rights weren't being infringed upon in any way - by using the software, the user was knowingly voiding the warranty on the console and violating their EULA, but these things are meaningless as well.

So who could come after Super Noah's Ark? Well, the only people who could do anything would be Id software, but since the game engine was licensed (as in, paid for), the game is totally legal. This is why the FAQ answering the legal question actually IS the answer to the legal question - the only people who have any rights in this instance are Wisdom Tree and Id Software, and both of them are satisfied with the current arrangement.

By the by, unlicensed NES and SNES games aren't illegal - they're unlicensed. Two very different words with two very different meanings.

[FujiSyusuke808]

shhh don't tell OP about indie games, theyre unlicensed too and totally illegal because theye totally unlicensed to run on pc by the platform holders

[MundM]

This is not nintendo, this is steam. What does a nintendo license have to do with pc? This is not a game from nintendo.