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Do Color Dreams Always Lead to the Wisdom Tree? Unlicensed Videogames and Morality
By Marc | December 31, 2008
Yesterday, when I had it in my head to write about Wisdom Tree Games, I just wanted to blast them. They sort of have a reputation for really hard games that don’t seem to be finished. They are also known for making unlicensed games for the NES and the ONLY unlicensed game for the Super Nintendo, “Super 3D Noah’s Ark”.
I wanted to go into a rant about how “Super 3D Noah’s Ark” is an almost direct copy of Wolfenstein 3D, some of their Christian games are bad copies of their bad earlier games, and how you’ve pretty much got to turn into a hacker/miscreant in order to play their games because you have to either do funky things such as wait at least 7 seconds between turning on and off the game system. Or, as in the case of “Super 3D Noah’s Ark”, you have to insert a licensed game cartridge into the top of the “Noah” cartridge, sort of like using a Game Genie, in order for it to work.
But, I don’t want this post to be about that. A different slant came to me.
This is a game company, earlier known as Color Dreams, who took some of their earlier products, which were in cases slightly to fairly risqué, and decided to make wholesome games.
In the early 90’s, nobody was really making Christian video games. Actually, it seemed like an oxymoron. I really don’t know what their initial thinking was, but they made it about God, and that’s not so bad.
Although they didn’t really break any laws by making unlicensed games, they did go about things a little immorally. Their technology bypassed Nintendo’s lockout chips in order to play on the systems. On one hand, you could say they’re not letting Nintendo have the total monopoly, since they ruled their property with an iron fist and threatened to pull out of stores who sold unlicensed games. Licensed games also gave Nintendo a huge chunk out of profits.
It’s kind of shady for a company who produces Christian products to do things that shady, but I keep thinking of Mark 9:38-41:
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”
On the other hand, you could see it as wrong because Nintendo (and any other organization) only grants official licenses to products they would trust with their name. It helps with quality of product and name recognition. I’m not saying all of Nintendo’s games are hits, but they are programmed, tested, and manufactured to their specifications.
They were never really a threat to Nintendo, so they weren’t threatened with lawsuits and were able to keep in business. And also, they certainly were never really rolling in dough, so money’s not a viable motivation.
You may see it as a David vs. Goliath, or you may see it as ends justifying means and moral slippage, but the company is still around, and still selling games. Although their old stuff stuff is primarily ported to the PC (and not offering the cartridges), you can experience some frustration with really hard games and 8-bit nostalgia. Actually, some of their games are playable online.
What are your opinions on the matter? If the product is wholesome, does it matter what the means are? Or should the moral path always be followed, no matter the cost?
Although I’ve never played “Super 3D Noah’s Ark”, I really want to. I love Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and those old-school first person shooters. I wonder if they still have special tricks involved in order to play it on PC, such as standing on my head, removing parts from the computer, or downgrading various insides. Just kidding. I’m sure it works fine.
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