Boldest pirates ever (Episode 2)

Pirating will always be software's steady companion. There are simply no other goods to be stolen as easily, and as open to "justifications" (you know, "it's not like the stuff we pirate is missing somewhere afterwards", and the like).

While most pirating is carried out at least somewhat discrete, there's also always bootleggers so brazen-faced, that it really leaves one baffled. HG101's chief editor has already documented his own encounter with bootleggers illegally selling copyrighted games to fight cancer some time ago.

Well, I'm currently located in continental East Asia, where copyright and piracy have a quite different meaning than we know it from our western cultures. So in a country where I can buy the latest Disney and Pixar movies for 3 bucks at every other subway station, it didn't really surprise me to stumble upon a "PC version" of Konami's Sexy Parodius while browsing the game dealers' stalls in a big market/mall for electronic appliances. Single game MAME releases are a daily sight and make up a good portion of what can be bought here (I'm not talking about simple CDRs, either. These are professional releases in a cardboard-sleeved jewel case, just like any other legit budget release).

However, a look at a screenshots on the back cover almost made me laugh out loud in the middle of the store. Of all things, they captured a MAME status screen. And not even the one with the driver info, but the very screen that tells you that the game isn't running properly.

Seriously, how bad can you screw up a thing like this? I can only hope the responsible package designer didn't understand a word of english, but even then, why chose a completely black screen with a few lines of text to advertise your illegal product. Or maybe I just discovered the most honest pirates in the world. Might as well print a label that says "This product, on top of violating international copyright law, doesn't work correctly, either." Or even better, add them as point features for the blurb on the back.