FAQs in NesterDC SE. I need advice.

[Strapping Scherzo]

I posted this in the NES section of the GameFAQs message boards right now. Please read. I need advice.

Hello to everyone. I'm currently working on a project which is a NES emulator for the Sega Dreamcast. It's called NesterDC SE. It is intended to be an emulator of a new breed. It will include screenshots and title shots of games and more, but I also intend it to contain FAQs as well. Thus making this emulator a true museum of NES goodness.

I have already collected all of the NES FAQs here at gamefaqs.com. My problem is that in the majority of FAQs that I've read, the authors state that they would like to be asked permission to use their works elsewhere besides this site. But that would be hundreds of authors that I would have to contact and wait for responses from. It would be a huge job just tracking the whole process.

I am not making this emulator to make a financial profit in any way. I'm doing it to make something that I deed cool and that other people might too. Then make it available free of charge.

I'm am not modifying the FAQs in any way. Therefore the original contact info for each author is there for my emulator users to see. I will also give credit on my emu's website and in the README file.

My current plan is to go ahead with the feature of my project and if I receive requests from authors to have their work removed I will do so on a case by case basis.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on this subject.

Thanks.

So I don't wanna step on anyone's toes. But I also don't want to give up this feature. I've finished the feature and it's great. Do you guys think I should just go ahead with it? Should I at least make a list of all email addresses found in the FAQs (over 1600!) and send a mass email to them all?

[Juan]

If you already made the feature sure, at least mass email; just tell them to give you the answer in the subject so you don't have to actually read each reply

I just hope this won't be a problem if you were to have the emu finished and had to wait for permit

[crt023]

If people from GameFAQS give you a problem why don't you at least see if we could have volunteers at DCEmulation to make some FAQS.

People here have pretty much played and beaten every game on the NES by now and I'm sure that they would love to have credit included in the emulator. Most games wouldn't be that difficult to make a quick FAQ for and if you had a bunch of people working on them it would not be that difficult.

This is a tremendous feature for the emulator.

[Phantom]

So I don't wanna step on anyone's toes. But I also don't want to give up this feature. I've finished the feature and it's great. Do you guys think I should just go ahead with it? Should I at least make a list of all email addresses found in the FAQs (over 1600!) and send a mass email to them all?

I think you should contact the authors and only include those FAQs for which you have permission. Essentially those FAQs are copyrighted works and distributing them without permission is illegal. If the FAQ already gives permission for redistribution then there's no need to contact the author ofcourse.

But why don't you just have the NesterDC SE users download the FAQs they need themselves?

[Skynet]

But why don't you just have the NesterDC SE users download the FAQs they need themselves?

Probably because

Thus making this emulator a true museum of NES goodness.

Having all the needed info right there and not having to do anything extra (besides getting the roms) is what I think his goal is. Every piece of information he can get on the NES games will be in here. As he said, a museum of NES goodness and it's right there at your fingertips. All you need to do is pop it into your DC and go.

Sounds nifty.

[not just souLLy now]

i'd say do a mass email something along the lines of if you have a problem put a no in the title of your reply and ill be sure to leave yours out, that and posting on gamefaqs... that would satisfy 99% of people i would presume. see what the gamefaq guys say on the forum but it's an excellent feature and well worth saving imo.

[Syd]

Definitely mass email, even though it will take a hell of a long time to compile a complete list of all the email addresses. This is definitely a feature worth saving. It would be a lot better than me having to go between my bedroom and my living room to keep checking a FAQ. This feature would make life much easier.

If people from GameFAQS give you a problem why don't you at least see if we could have volunteers at DCEmulation to make some FAQS.

For many games it would take a LONG time to write a complete FAQ. Many FAQs have a full list of weapons, monsters, secrets, levels, etc. in a game, thus making it more of a manual/walkthrough than an actual FAQ. I've beaten Dragon Warrior 1 and 3 many times, and like to think I know almost everything about each game, but it would take me a couple months to complete a FAQ for just one of those games.

[Strapping Scherzo]

Thanks for the ideas.

crt023: There's no way our writing efforts could compare to what GameFAQs has. There are over 1600 of them for about 800 different games. Plus they are usually very in depth. That's what I love about them.

I guess it all depends on what people on the message board say and what the individual responses are to my email campaign.

Here's an idea. In order to gather the FAQs that I now have, I wrote a PHP script that spidered the gamefaqs.com website for just NES FAQs. I downloaded all 1600+ in less than an hour. What if I put this mechanism into the CD builder, downloading directly from GameFAQs instead of my site? There are many website "copiers" that will make a local copy of a given website on your hard drive, allowing you to view that site offline whenever you want. How would this be different?

I personally don't want to do that because I see it as leeching their bandwidth and resources. No, I won't do this. That's big trouble.

In the end, I might have to make this a do-it-yourself feature. Of course, my personal copy of SE would be juiced. They can't stop me from that!

[crt023]

With that being the case I wouldn't mind downloading the FAQs myself. I only have 29 NES games at this time so it won't take me long to download the FAQs for those games.

The only people I think it'll be a major problem for are people that have like 200+ games.

[Strapping Scherzo]

Well, I'm basically getting shot down at GameFAQs. So forget the whole feature. There will be a text viewer bult in to NesterDC SE but it'll be up to the user to gather whatever they want to go in there. I'm not dealing with possible copyright violations. Here's what I just posted at GameFAQs:

Funny how you did not post the following paragraph after that, which reads:

I personally don't want to do that because I see it as leeching their bandwidth and resources. No, I won't do this. That's big trouble.

Here's the link for everyone to see:

http://www.dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewto ... 911#769911

Anyways, forget it. I'm taking out this feature. I'm not about to infringe on anyone's copyright. Case closed.

And, Mark, there's plenty of space on the CD for these extas when just about everything is zipped. If it wasn't feasible I wouldn't be doing it.

Also, You don't know me. You don't know why it's taken as long as it has. This world has enough negativity. So why don't you keep your negative thoughts to yourself? I have worked so hard on this project, and don't appreciate your comments that are completely off topic and simply designed to direct negative attention to me.

Again, I'm taking the FAQs out. Simple solution. However, you have no power to prevent me from having my own personal disc from having them all. Too bad for the rest of the people who will use NesterDC SE. They are just SOL.

Link to the topic at the GameFAQs board

[MetaFox]

I knew that was going to happen. GameFAQs is a cesspool. 99% of the posters over there are idiots.

Oh, and:

If people from GameFAQS give you a problem why don't you at least see if we could have volunteers at DCEmulation to make some FAQS.

That's a good idea. It's not like the FAQs are terribly hard to make.

[Strapping Scherzo]

I knew that was going to happen. GameFAQs is a cesspool. 99% of the posters over there are idiots.

Oh, and:

If people from GameFAQS give you a problem why don't you at least see if we could have volunteers at DCEmulation to make some FAQS.

That's a good idea. It's not like the FAQs are terribly hard to make.

Not hard, but not done overnight either. There must be hundreds of thousands of man hours in the NES GameFAQs alone.

[Syd]

I knew that was going to happen. GameFAQs is a cesspool. 99% of the posters over there are idiots.

I was thinking the exact same thing, but I didn't want to say anything. I was trying to think positively.

I wouldn't worry about it Scherzo, as long as you have the feature in there thats the main thing. Then it will be up to us if we want to download all the FAQS, some of them, or none.

[toastman]

Or you should remind these people that process can't be copyrighted and all FAQ's are by neccessity derivative works, not to mention that at least half of them are cribbed from published strategy guides, and the other half use actual game graphics.
All without permission.
Anyway, their claims on copyright are tenuous to non-existent.

[Cid Highwind]

I'm sorry to hear this messed up so much just because of a couple of knuckleheads over at gamefaqs are making a fuzz out of something of minor importance to them, while they could've been doing the DC scene a great pleasure.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to make a folder for the text files ready, so we can just put them in, so that we only have to change the name of the file or something? That way we could download them ourselves, and add them ourselves.

[drybed]

u know what u should do, u should include this feature WITHOUT anyone's walkthrough/faqs/ect. or any other .txt files in it already and make the downloaders put in their own faqs or they probbably just take the faqs from gamefaqs and put it in themselves
It is the same thing as including an emulator without any roms in it, just do the same thing with this feature

[not just souLLy now]

it would seem we overestimated the intelligence of the gamefaqs guys. pricks.

[Sir Savant]

Thanks anyways Scherzo. But put the txt viewer feature in anyways and tell us the names that each faq has to have in order to be tied to a rom or something.

[LyingWake]

Plain and simple; they're pricks. There's no reason for them to NOT let you use them.

nubs

[wes1406]

I say do it anyway.

Screw them