<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/28/nintendo-hates-you-scans-of-super-mario-64-manual-taken-down-via-copyright-claim/>
"I’ll give Nintendo this much: the company certainly is an absolute master at
enforcing copyright in the most extreme, pettiest manner possible. I’ve already
had some fun comparing Nintendo to Disney, in that the way the company is
handling shutting down older game stores and making those games no longer
available in most places is akin to Disney’s long history of “vaulting” movies
to control their availability. Combine that with Nintendo’s practice of
attempting to take down absolutely every instance of fans sharing bits of its
content, taking down game music that isn’t available anywhere else, and its
killing off emulation sites so it can sell trash versions of old games, and
you’re left with the impression that business success is entirely secondary to
its desire for control.
There are tons more examples of this, but perhaps none so petty as Nintendo
taking down a super dope Super Mario 64 game manual scan over copyright. This
looks to have started, at least in part, with a Kotaku post on just how cool
the manual that was scanned is.
In 1996 a book was released in Japan called Super Mario 64 Complete Clear
Guide Book, which wasn’t just a strategy guide but also a collection of
developer commentary and photos of custom-made 3D dioramas, crafted just for
the guide.
While it’s hardly a lost relic—you can find copies all over eBay for
$200-300 if you’re serious about reading it in the flesh—most people reading
this will have never seen the book, or if you have, will have only seen a
select few pages of it. That simply will not do, so it’s great to see that
someone (CFC’s Dave Shevlin) has taken the time to scan and upload the
entire book at a very useful 600dpi.
Those 3D dioramas are super dope. And, frankly, there are a ton of us out here
that have an affinity for old-school retro video game manuals. I used to love
reading them back when I was kid. It’s also a fact that those manuals are part
of the history of the art that is video games. And, as art, they ought to be
preserved.
Instead of preserving it and then making it available, however, Nintendo pulled
a Nintendo again."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
