19 minutes ago, francoisdiy said:
How did people do that? And how are they selling some of these cartridges for $40? And with people actually buying them? Are these legal consequences involved?
They could be fake, or scams. That said, it's certainly possible. The patents protecting Nintendo's lockout chips have expired (including, I think, the ones used for the SNES), and the CIC was cloned towards the end of the SNES's lifespan anyhow and used to distribute pirated games. Flash memory that can be read by the old consoles has been available for some time now, and it doesn't seem that difficult to break down real SNES cartridges, put your chips in there, and put them back together. Maybe they're 3D printing the cartridge cases as well. It certainly doesn't seem like a difficult task.
There are legal consequences involved, certainly. At the very least, they're distributing derivative works of the Mario IP and Nintendo's other intellectual property (such as the "seal of quality" logo). I may be wrong about the patent expiration for the lockout chips, and the cartridge designs might be patented. It seems very unlikely the cartridge's claims of being "licensed by Nintendo" are true. Et cetera. Just because they haven't been caught doesn't mean it's legal.
19 minutes ago, francoisdiy said:
This whole thing is what got me interested in doing the same thing with my own software project - package it and put it on eBay! What do you all think of this?
It seems like a terrible idea. Specifically, the reselling on eBay part (eBay's brand is tarnished, and it has a depressingly high reputation for scam sellers); there are better ways to sell your product, even if you want to sell it physically (ignoring the plethora of digital distribution mechanisms). Maybe on platforms like Etsy or similar (no idea if Etsy's TOS, in particular, prohibit this, and it's probably not the correct demographic, but similar sites probably exist that are better suited). Or simply selling directly using some payment processor like Square. It's not like eBay is buying you anything.
Further, if you're specifically talking about selling your homebrew SNES game packaged in a cart, I wouldn't take my advice on the litany of potential legal issues I noted above. I'd talk to a real lawyer to make sure you are aware of the actual legal issues. If you're just selling a normal PC game, then this applies less, but I still stand by my assertion that eBay is a terrible marketplace for custom software.
