this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024

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452

Preserve Your Games with the Open Source Cartridge Reader (www.retronews.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Open Source Cartridge Reader (OSCR) is a versatile tool designed to help preserve video game cartridges and save data. Developed by Sanni and the community, this device allows users to back up ROM files and save games from a wide range of vintage consoles.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Someone should buy this and then charge like $5 to backup someone's cartridge for them.

Too expensive for everyone to own

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah seriously.

Also are we not at a stage where most games have been dumped perfectly already?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This is for preserving one’s own library, which makes emulation fully legal instead of the wink wink “legal” that many gamers find themselves in.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This is really cool, but I wonder how long it’ll last before they are bullied with legal threats.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

They don’t have support for any recent Nintendo systems (not even the DS) so they’ll probably be fine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't think it matters for Big N. I got a cease and desist a long time ago for using a video game trademark in my website URI as a teen. I mean I could have fought it but it was enough to kill my spirit.

Going to guess the creators aren't seeing this as their bread and butter and enough of a threat of a lawsuit can pretty quickly slow down/shut down a project.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I think dumping your game cartridges is legal, otherwise you couldn't emulate games legally.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The thing about legal threats is that they can work even if the theory they are based on isn't any good. Fee-shifting isn't always guaranteed, if it is available at all. Capital has already budgeted for its lawyers this year, have you?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yes tiptoe around that eula

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Since when did cartridge games have EULAs?

Also: in sane countries (i.e: not the so-called US), EULAs don't overwrite civil laws.

The only dangersis when DRM is circumvented.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

so-called US

I know what you mean but it’s funny to question what a country has named itself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The people of the continent called it "turtle island". European occupiers called it the "US".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Country is not the Continent.

Sure, the singular cultural/political/religious "those people".

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

🙄

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Official site: https://www.cartreader.net/

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago (3 children)

US$249.99 ready-built, for anybody curious. Not saying it's not worth that, but that will price a lot of people out of it.

[+] [email protected] -26 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Doesn't seem like a very "open source" price to me.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Source is here if you want it to feel more open source by building it yourself. See if you can do it for cheaper after factoring in your labour time.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It pretty much is. I guess that this puts them in the 50$ per hour considering ordering, building and shipping. Considering they give you the instructions to diy it sounds pretty fair. They know they wont sell thousands of copies so they don't have bulk pricing on components. How much do you charge per hour for your work?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Yeah, this is pretty standard. Between the low production numbers and the fact that assembly is probably occurring in a country with stronger labor laws than wherever mass-producted hardware is made (mostly China), it's going to cost more than something you can pick up on Amazon or AliExpress.

There have been a few cases where open-source hardware like this has enough demand to get picked up by a Chinese manufacturer who makes a cheaper version through some combo of unethical labor practices, production scale, employing cheaper or cloned parts and/or dropping features, so it's not out of the question that a cheaper version comes along, as long as you don't mind the compromises to get it.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago

Why? Open source doesn’t mean “cheap” or “at cost.”

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yeah if you can do it yourself it's about half that. Save the hero builds an older revision but it's also cheaper.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Me.

I was like "oh cool!"

And then I saw the price.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

This is neat!

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