WTF? Dude are you serious? Is your head on fuckin backwards? We won’t know to replace the suicide battery because Capcom concealed the info. So don’t go saying “If you didn’t replace it that’s your problem.” When there is no way to tell if even the battery exists… It took someone to hack into the cart to find it in the first place. Capcom didn’t tell us this… Dude are you feeling ok?
What do you mean by taking steps to maintain your investment? The suicide battery has no maintanence nor can you prevent it from killing you game without hacking it in someway or another which would void the warrenty. Clearly Capcom wanted thier game to die after a certian period of time. Sure you can side with Capcom and says what they did was legit, but that doesn’t make it right… And I know of no other games besides Capcom’s that use suicide batteries… So if your gonna say other games have them please provide examples… I have many many arcade games and Capcom is the only one with suicide batteries. Yes some memory cards for saving games use them but when they die that does’t erase the whole fucking game.
Here’s where you start having issues. The whole video game cart example does not work at all. You see, when a battery inside, say an SNES cart, dies out, the game itself still works perfectly fine. You just are completely unable to save. Oh well, you can however change the battery out and put a new one in without much trouble and it can now save. There is a big difference here between that and the CPS-3 batteries. In the case of the CPS-3 the game is just gone, tough shit. With the SNES cart (And other cart based saves are generally the same) you just have a game that can’t save until it’s replaced.
This really should fall under an illegal category, and I’m almost certain it does. If it just died when you did something you weren’t supposed to then it would be fine, but it just destroys the game if you simply do not change the battery, and this information was not put out front to people purchasing this. This is illegal, plain and simple. Things such as this have caused winning lawsuits in the past, and if the support were there it could here too. That’s just my two cents.
But as you can see this has been going on for quite some time and is a common practice in the arcade industry. It’s interesting to note that a lot of the reason some of the older games can be fixed after the kit suicides is because you can DL the rom and fix it.
Except it is perfectly legal and it’s a common practice. Legal precident is on Capcoms side in this.
Again that doesn’t mean they aren’t assholes for doing it, but it’s legit.
Ok so there are some other criminals besides Capcom out there. Once Cps3 is dead its gone forever, not completely true with the others you listed. But, I am after the most recent which is Cps3… After all, to invest that type of money only to have it die 5-6 years later with no warning or no preventative maintanence possible is very bad… One simple fine print paragraph in Capcom’s manual would have ended all this, but then people would be less likely to buy it. Yes this can be argued on here forever. I think most including Judges and Lawyers would side with me.
I seriously doubt the suicide battery was purely copyright protection anyway, not that it even matters its still wrong.
The reason the others are fixable is because you can dl a ROM online to fix it because the encryption has been cracked. If people crack CPS3 encryption then you can do the same thing.
Those games were “gone forever” till people cracked it and emulated it. Just like what would need to happen with CPS3.
Well, wether anyone cracks the encryption or not isn’t really the point… Doesn’t make what Capcom did right. That being said I hope someone does and freely distributes it to everyone who has a busted cps3. Maybe Capcom needs to be sued and made the example for everyone else… Can you imagine if some other large company like MicroSoft pulled this shit? Lawsuits would fly all over the place, but MS isn’t that stupid they would put the disclaimer in their 300 page EULA.
Shit happens all over. I remember a women sueing a repair man since her 20 year old TV can no longer be fixed. The judge through out the case based on the fact that the company can’t do business if people stick with old products.
So no, I don’t believe sueing capcom will do anything at all.
And no, seeing Capcoms loses for the last several years, I doubt they have the money to fix everyone with a CPS2 and CPS3 boards.
Bad analogy, $3000 Video game produced 5-6 years ago is not a 20 year TV that can be easily replaced. I would be happy to pay a fair amount to have a cps3 fixed or replaced but that can’t happen.
bad or not that’s court logic. also due to a recent ruling when you buy hardware you don’t own the software. So if you lose it (which is what a suicide bat does) you have no case. Keep in mind this has been going on since the 80’s and people have always lost their lawsuits, thus legal precidence so nope you can’t win.
As for cracking CPS3. It took a LONG time to crack cps2 and the other boards. The problem with CPS3 is that there are so few games out for it none of the decent crackers care to bother with it. They would rather crack systems that mean more in the scene (and not the fighter scene) and have more games thus spreading their fame.
Down the road I’m sure someone will bust it in their spare time and you can load your encryption at will.
FYI the game data has been dumped, they just lack the encryption and are lazy
Electronic device craps out after several years of faithful service
You attempt to get it repaired but fail
You then try to sue, judge throws out the case.
Just because one item cost less doesn’t invalidate this.
Also keep in mind, most people that owe these boards are supposed to be arcade owners, thus they’re turning a profit from use of these machines. You can’t turn a profit on a TV.
Although I absolutely loathe the idea of suicide batteries, which in the long run shows Capcom (USA’s) lack of any caring for its arcade scene, it should be mentioned that ‘built-in’ failures in equipment have existed for quite some time now and spread out alot further than just arcade machines.
A prime example are household refridgerators. Spanning from the low-end small plain ones to the “triple door’d ice dispensing brushed silver finished make your coffee and look after the wife and kids” models, these products have been designed to fail within five years, albiet in a less dubious fashion than a suicide battery. They do it by making certain parts very difficult to access and replace by sealing them off inside the casing and hiding it amongst other components to get in the way. In the end it’s usually cheaper to replace the fridge instead of getting your current one serviced, thus the producers can keep the money rolling in from product sales, instead of having it “bled” away from outside service tradesmen coughipodbatterycough
Point being, has anyone ever been penalised court over this? Apparently not, as the “envisioned life” of the product has outlasted its warranty and in the end, that’s probally what will end up mattering in the courts. If the warranty length is fair, then there isn’t much one can do about it. One side will argue that suicide batteries are Capcom’s blatant abuse against its consumers, while Capcom will most likely argue back that suicide batteries are a way of “protecting” their property from piracy and the unfortunate event of the closing of Coinop USA voids any warranty that the consumer might have once had. Further, even IF Capcom would be forced to service CPS systems that have died, it would probally only cover units that are still under factory warranty. I don’t know how long a CPS3 system is covered for, but in all likelyness it’s probally less than 3 years? Assuming most of the boards out there today were made between 1999-2002, most people are gonna be SOL. It’s terribly unfair, I know, but if someone wants to prove me wrong, go ahead and try to win the case
You arn’t an Arcade operator so it isn’t your problem. Lets say you are an operator of a CPS3 boad that has lasted 7 years. (The battery isn’t even in use while the machine is on, so honestly it should last much longer in an Arcade scene. Some CPS2 boards have gone 10+ years without a change).
You will throw the peice of shit away as it is not going to be making money anymore unless it is 3rd Strike.
If 3rd strike, another one will be bought on the market for 10x LESS then the original price.
In that time frame of 7 years I hope to god you made your money back.
3rd Strike is the ONLY CPS3 game that is still being played 7 years later in arcades, the other titles are all trash that won’t make anyone any money. And at this time, CPS3 games are no longer made, CAPCOM isn’t going to be making money off of people by selling new CPS3 boards, so this isn’t some grand scheme to keep the money rolling in.
It was mentioned before, but thanks to the suicide battery there is no rampant bootleg scene like with the MVS. Hell, after CPS2 was cracked one of the more expensive games (Progear) now has bootlegs out there.
You guys make such a big deal about this shit, and it is only HOME users that I hear complaining. These systems were NOT MADE FOR YOU. So just change the battery and stfu.
First off, any built in device designed to kill your equipment is wrong period. The 20 year TV analogy is just stupid. It died from normal usage no so with CPS3. I have a nearly 20 year old Double Dragon board that works perfectly fine. It may or may no die tomarrow but atleast it doesn’t have a built in failure system. Also, arcade machines are bought by home users to, I know many that have bought them brand new from arcade game vendors… so don’t say something ignorant and irrelivent like that. The only reason you only hear the home users complaining are for several reasons… The Arcade owners have no clue why there machines aren’t working anymore…(read the previous posts) and home users post here not arcade owners.
Valgar, if you bought a brand new 3rd strike 6 years ago for $3000 and went to turn it on today and it didn’t work because of a hidden battery and you couldn’t fix it. Tell me you wouldn’t be pissed? People are so full or shit until its happens to them.
Time to end this thread… Are suicide batteries wrong? Yes most people have agreed that to be true… Would it ever hold up in court if someone tried to sue? Well, we will most likely never know that, but it would take a damn good lawyer and lots of $$$. Did you gets your money’s worth out of the 5-7 years you had the game?? Ask yourself that.
PS. I just found out my George Foreman Grilling Machine has a suicide battery in it… Oh well, atleast I’ll get 5 years out of it.
I can still play Zelda on the NES, I just can’t save the game. Completely different from not being able to play at all.
Most arcade games use batteries for book keeping. Not being able to save options and high scores is a little different from not being able to play the game at all.
What other companies sell products that die after 7 years besides auto manufacturers who have been sued and lost? Name them.
Please name the arcade games that die after a specified amount of time besides Capcom Suicide games. And I don’t mean like, something inside the machine breaks and it dies, I mean an arcade board that was specifically designed to be worthless in 7 years.
First off it’s not designed to fail after 7 years. It fails because the battery keeping the encryption dies off in time (like all batteries). As long as you replace the battery the data is not lost and the board is fine. Or if you can crack the encryption you can just load that again. Let’s get this straight it’s not that the board was designed to be worthless in 7 years, it’s that you couldn’t maintain the board for seven years, if you had it would still work.
As for other arcade games here goes.
Sega
Ace Attacker
Action Fighter
Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars
Alien Storm
Alien Syndrome
Altered Beast
Aurail
Bay Route
Bloxeed
Clutch Hitter
Cotton
Crack Down
D.D.Crew (317-0186)
D.D.Crew (317-0187)
Desert Breaker
Dynamic CC
Dynamite Dux
Excite League
Enduro Racer
E-Swat
Flash Point
Gain Ground
Golden Axe (317-0110)
Golden Axe (317-0120)
Golden Axe (317-0121)
GP Rider
Jyuohki
Laser Ghost
Line of Fire
Moon Walker
Moon Walker
Out Run (System 16)
Out Run
Passing Shot
Ryu Kyu
SDI
Shinobi (Type A)
Shinobi (Type B)
Shinobi (Type B)
Super Hang-On
Super League
Super Masters Golf
Super Monaco GP
Tetris (Type A)
Tetris (Type B)
Thunder Blade
Turbo Out Run
Wonderboy III
Now those are JUST the sega games that had suicide bats, and note how old those games are, I could go on.
As funny as this is it boils down to a bunch of people that didn’t know this tech existed got burned by Capcom and now want to raise a stink about it. Go sue them, good luck have fun. If you win let’s sue a ton of other companies who have been doing it even longer.
As mentioned above your refrigerator will implode after x amount of time, and it’s more expensive to fix it then to buy a new one. Ipod’s also will fail after an amount of time (unless you maintain them) and it costs as much as a new one as it does to fix it. Also your PC will fail over time. Your CPU grows and shrinks over time, your hard drives only have x amount of hours before they fail. Even your BIOS ROM chip will go bad after time and then your motherboards worthless (much harder to replace then a suicide battery).
