~Bunbunmaru News~ > Letters to the Editor
Stance on PC-98 games?
Chill Observer:
Yes, I'm aware there's the piracy rule and you're encouraged to buy the games legitimately and all that.
But take a look at this. It feels kind of ridiculous that the only way you can get the PC-98 Touhou games legitimately is by paying a 5-digit price tag, and frankly that is far beyond any level of acceptance, especially considering the data in it may already be corrupted. Not to mention even getting a PC-98 computer in the first place.
I'm not sure if PC-98 as a whole has been brought up in the past, but I feel that some awareness, and possibly an official statement, on how we can get or allow PC-98 here would be much appreciated!
Helepolis:
Your question is a bit weird for me. What do you expect from us? We're not official partners or representatives of Shanghai Alice or ZUN. We're not an authority nor deal with cases like intellectual property and such. Therefore, I don't see what awareness or official statement you're asking.
It doesn't matter whether the object in question is a Touhou game or not. The rarity of said objects has nothing to do with us, nor we have any control over it. If you're not willing to pay ridiculous price, that is fine. Whether it is acceptable or not is your personal opinion. Some people do find it acceptable and thus pay the price to be owner of a rare item. People pay lots of money for some high valued: Cars, stamps, vases, paintings, jewellery, etc.
Bluntly said: No awareness required as such is life.
Chill Observer:
Alright, thanks for the clarification. At the time I just wasn't really sure if cases like these would be different from the usual as they're no longer being produced in any way.
aUsernameIsFineToo:
From a legal point of view, piracy is piracy as long as copyrights haven't expired. This is the way things are, and even if it's not really enforced it's still copyright infringement. With that said, I do understand that the PC-98 games are well beyond reach for most people. If you're the kind of person that respects ZUN for what he does, it won't hurt to throw a few donations his way. I feel like he'd certainly appreciate it if those who are unable to purchase legal copies of his works send some cash his way. Of course, if you can purchase games and CDs easily (Amazon.jp comes to mind, as well as the multitude of proxy services), you should always go that route. If you absolutely want to play the PC-98 games and you feel bad for contributing to the rather rampant piracy scene you should definitely make up for your inability to purchase games that wouldn't support him at all in the first place. If you think about it, it's highly unlikely you'll support ZUN in any way by purchasing the PC-98 games on floppy or as the CD compilation. Unless the seller gives a share of the exorbitant money (s)he charges for the games it has the exact same financial effect on him as piracy. This is a problem not only with games, but with any sort of collectible item. Do you choose to support the creator, some random person trying to capitalize on fans for a pretty penny, or, in the case of digital media, break copyright law by receiving unauthorized copies? In the end the choice is really yours, since everyone has different thoughts on the matter.
Onion:
You pay 5 digits if you want the jewel case.
As it turns out, Amusement Makers (read: copyright holder) put up installers for all five games the last four games on their website, for free. I can't get them to work, because my DOS is American, but they're definitely the full games.
If you want The Highly Responsive to Prayers, I don't know. If you want an actual PC-98, it was never released in the west. The APC III doesn't have the oomph needed to play any of the games, and IBM PCs (aka the thing you're using right now) are incompatible. :\