iDOLM@STER DS

[BT2]

In some countries, it is legal to have a game backup. As far as in the US, it is legal. Same goes for Canada.

Learn2google

Private ownership

In some countries, it is legal for an individual to personally make backup copies of a game they own. Individuals may make backup copies for various reasons, perhaps as insurance against losing the game or as redundancy in the event that the original game's medium becomes unreadable. See the section on ROMs and Preservation.

However, in the U.S. it has been illegal since 1983 for a user to create their own backups of video game ROMs onto other cartridges. This was decided in the court case of Atari v. JS&A. JS&A manufactured a "game backup" device that allowed users to dump their Atari ROMs onto a blank cartridge. JS&A argued that the archival rule allowed for this. The court disagreed, noting that ROM media was not subject to the same volatility as magnetic media (for which the law was created). Thus, not being so relatively vulnerable, ROMs were not applicable under section 17 USC 117(a)(2).

Some games companies, such as Nintendo, print warnings inside their game manuals that they do not allow users to make backup or archival copies. Whether or not these warnings in this specific form can be considered valid contracts is legally questionable.

Video Game Roms are not subject to the same standards that apply to Magnetic media (floppy disks, hard drives) and the copying of a rom image for the purpose of "backups" has been illegal since 1983, as decided in US court case Atari v. JS&A.

Many people fall back on the Fair use doctrine in the Unites Stated copyright law, stating that one is only allowed to have a back-up of a medium if one uses it for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research and certain conditions are met. However in the US making back-ups has been illegal since 1983.

[curriegrad2004]

Well, Canada still allows you to do that.

And technically you can make a ROM backup legally in the US using that Fair use doctrine. My reason for this is that the game is stored in a flash chip, not a masked ROM. Back in the Atari days all the games were stored in a Masked ROM.

A masked ROM and a flash chip are two different things here, so technically the flashkarts may be legal in the first place, but with the DCMA in place I doubt that flashkarts could be 'legal'.

EDIT: After googling more, the issue of flashkarts are debatable. Some people say it's illegal, some people say it's in the grey area.

Reasons for this is that the NDS cartridges are most likely using NAND Chips and those chips can be re-programmed, thus treated as recordable media. Fair Use doctrine may still apply here, but any good lawyer can lie to the judge to sway his decision on NAND is not a recordable media.

[TweenDoriru]

I know this is a tad off-topic to the flash-stuff, but I asked this on the old forum and forgot the answer OTL

in this picture, the bottom-right screenshot is camera choices, right? I haven't seen anything about duo or trios in the previews/Dearly Station videos, so what are there 3 columns for (heck, I don't know if you can tell by the blurb of text under the screenshot)?

Also...the new songs are "ALIVE", "Dazzling World", and "プリコグ", right? Since the song menu (a la izquierda) is full except for one song and none of those are in it...are they only going to be able to sing their respective "character" songs? o_o

[Nanashi]

in this picture, the bottom-right screenshot is camera choices, right? I haven't seen anything about duo or trios in the previews/Dearly Station videos, so what are there 3 columns for (heck, I don't know if you can tell by the blurb of text under the screenshot)?

Actually the screenshot shows the choreography customization interface, but the camera work interface is mostly identical to that anyway.
As far as I can tell the columns are there to allow you to set a sequence of up to three camera angles for each part/line of the song. One of the previews (can't remember which) at some point showed a screen that allowed the player to specify the exact timing of the camera switches, so I guess the columns are flexible.

Also...the new songs are "ALIVE", "Dazzling World", and "プリコグ", right? Since the song menu (a la izquierda) is full except for one song and none of those are in it...are they only going to be able to sing their respective "character" songs? o_o

Dunno, but I'm 99% certain there was either a screenshot or a video with the song menu showing 10 songs (3 of which were ? ? ?'ed) instead of only 8...

[TweenDoriru]

Actually the screenshot shows the choreography customization interface, but the camera work interface is mostly identical to that anyway.
As far as I can tell the columns are there to allow you to set a sequence of up to three camera angles for each part/line of the song. One of the previews (can't remember which) at some point showed a screen that allowed the player to specify the exact timing of the camera switches, so I guess the columns are flexible.
Dunno, but I'm 99% certain there was either a screenshot or a video with the song menu showing 10 songs (3 of which were ? ? ?'ed) instead of only 8...

all I can read (and understand, haha) is "camera work" (カメラワーク) under the picture, so I guessed it was the camera stuff. That'll be really interesting to see play out in the game, for sure.

and yeah, the article I took this from was from...a few months ago, so maybe that's just like a work-in-progress screenshot? (to get everyone excited that Kiramekirari is in the game!)

[Nanashi]

and yeah, the article I took this from was from...a few months ago, so maybe that's just like a work-in-progress screenshot? (to get everyone excited that Kiramekirari is in the game!)

Yeah, either that, or the other one could've been a work-in-progress screen... but lets hope not.

EDIT: found the screenshot I meant, its in this very thread on page 4. The text next to it says "Apart from the 7 songs available from the start, 3 hidden songs have been prepared. In order to use them... ...?" So I guess that suggests each of them is able to sing all 10 songs?

[Laburey]

Yeah, either that, or the other one could've been a work-in-progress screen... but lets hope not.

EDIT: found the screenshot I meant, its in this very thread on page 4. The text next to it says "Apart from the 7 songs available from the start, 3 hidden songs have been prepared. In order to use them... ...?" So I guess that suggests each of them should be able to sing all 10 songs?

Yes, that scan is more recent than the one Doriru-san referred to, isn't it?

Also, I've taken for granted all the time that the Dearly Stars will perform as a trio in-game, at least as a final performance, but I guess this has been neither confirmed nor denied yet, then.

[Nanashi]

Also, I've taken for granted all the time that the Dearly Stars will perform as a trio in-game, at least as a final performance, but I guess this has been neither confirmed nor denied yet, then.

Unthinkable! As Takagi-shachou has told us countless times over, only one will be able to stand at the summit of the idol world!

...but honestly, don't count on it... If the DS had been able to handle duos or trios I'm sure Namco would've added it to the stage mode and shown it off by now. It'd be too big a selling point to waste by saving it only as an extra for the final performance, wouldn't it?

[TweenDoriru]

I just hope there's a trio performance option at some point XD The thing I missed most from SP (besides the flashing costumes) was the ability to have duos and trios.
It just expands on everything that you can do in the game. Even with just 3 characters to choose from, there's a lot of options for different sounding songs and different looking performances

the only evidence against this is that there hasn't been any duos or trios shown in any of the previews. But, then again, there's probably quite a few gameplay bits we haven't seen.

It's so hard to say. XD

Oh, and Nanashi-san; there was a different idol-likesomethingoranother for the DS (Kirarin Revolution or...something, I don't remember).
Someone posted a youtube video to the ad while we were still guessing how the stage performances would look XD
I'm sure iM@S has things that the other game didn't, but that game was able to handle 3 people on one stage, so I don't think they'd leave out the feature due to limits.
They'd leave it out to make us buy the 360 game or wait until 2nd Vision console game, maybe...

[Laburey]

Unthinkable! As Takagi-shachou has told us countless times over, only one will be able to stand at the summit of the idol world!

...but honestly, don't count on it... If the DS had been able to handle duos or trios I'm sure Namco would've added it to the stage mode and shown it off by now. It'd be too big a selling point to waste by saving it only as an extra for the final performance, wouldn't it?

Yes, that's obviously true. Still, I thought that maybe to include one or a few not-so-customisable trio performances in story mode would not be as demanding as a trio stage mode. But I guess that too would have been known by now.

[Scotty]

You don't need much under the hood to do a trio of.....those things you seem to interpret as idols. All I see are blobs of pixels.

[Drunken Watermelon]

You don't need much under the hood to do a trio of.....those things you seem to interpret as idols. All I see are blobs of pixels.

You sound a bit butthurt there, son.
Want to sit down and take a deep breath? Of course you would!

[Scotty]

You make me angry. I think I'll challenge you to a multiplayer game.

iM@S DS

[Laburey]

You make me angry. I think I'll challenge you to a multiplayer game.

iM@S DS

http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu254/Laburey/dsmp.jpg (ecchi)

[Demeter]

Dearly Station #4 is up on Nicovideo ^^

Part 1: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1251641649
Part 2: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1251642008
Part 3: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1251642217