Back in the days of consoles using cartridges, the problem of piracy wasn’t really that rampant as today (which is logical, since the explosion of video gaming has left a wider range of gamers who can’t really afford original games, especially those residing in developing countries). All one had to do was purchase a pirated copy, stick it into the cartridge slot, and the game ran just as fine as the original would. In fact, NES knockoffs had plenty of 50-in-1 cartridges which definitely gave a gamer much more bang for the buck, but with the advent of games being available on CDs, most, if not all, console manufacturers decided to lock down the hardware to prevent the spread of piracy.

Unfortunately, this lock down did not last very long as the ingenious pirates seem to have an amazing knowledge of electronics and circuits, leading them to create ‘modchips’ which were soldered onto existing consoles. These modchips then allowed gamers to pursue their virtual entertainment at a much lower cost by picking up - you’ve guessed it - pirated titles. Looks like the now-gen consoles are not spared either, with the Nintendo Wii being afflicted by a Wiinja modchip. This modchip enables Wii owners to play ripped Wii games and even ISOs downloaded from the bowels of the Internet. In a nutshell, piracy has arrived on the Wii.

Of course, some people would argue that they purchase such a modchip to play games meant for other regions, but this is just a very small percentage. Just take a look at the Nintendo DS - most people prefer to flash their DS Lites and use a Supercard to carry plenty of games on the go on a single microSD card instead of carting around all those Slot 1 carts. If you are an existing Nintendo Wii owner, would you want to risk voiding the warranty on your Wii for this ‘newfound’ power, or do you prefer to stay legit? I suppose some of us do feel ripped off by game companies who produce sub-par titles and force us to cough up a handsome amount for it.

Source: Joystiq

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