What's more to blame for piracy: a lax and ineffective legal means of going after and punishing offenders, or lack of access to your products? It's more the latter, according to a Canadian study by their International Development Research Centre. This probably applies more to foreign markets than domestic ones, obviously, but it makes sense--people are most likely to pirate when it is difficult or impossible for them to buy something legally. Maybe the product simply isn't physically or legally available in their country (such as new BBC shows in the U.S. or abandonware), or it could just be that the product is priced too high for the locals to afford (which is the case in developing countries). The study also suggests that anti-piracy measures (legal and educational) have completely and utterly failed to demonstrate a significant result. I should probably put that last sentence in bold.

Would you still pirate if the game was widely available and priced to match your budget? It could be that publishers would be better off simply lowering prices than investing in DRM, regional lock-outs, and fighting so many legal battles over piracy. Or would this simply make it impossible for publishers to make profits on their games?

After years of struggle between those that would create software and those that would steal it, Capcom has finally found the perfect, DRM-free way to prevent people from stealing the PC version of Super Street Fighter IV.

They're just not going to release it.

Today created a triple boot Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 system - read this to find out how and how I will compare the 3 systems in a real world situation.

OK, it's not really 1,001 boxed computer games, it's actually 1,035 as of this writing by my best cataloging efforts (hopefully not missing more than a couple), but 1,001 has a certain literary ring to it... Here's the link. Anyway, this has taken me months of free time here and there to inventory. I just stuck to basics - Game, Platform(s), Publisher(s), Box Type (I winged that) and Genre (winged that too). This is ONLY boxed computer software - no videogames (consoles or handhelds), and only stuff that was commercially released (or at least appears to be). Inventorying my boxed videogame collection will take another long period of time independent of this. General photos of the computer software on their shelves, is here. Finally, the list of systems currently in my collection is here. A high percentage of those computer systems listed, both common and rare, have representation in my boxed software collection.

So, why do I bring this up? Simple. I'm taking requests. It's very important for me to share my collection in as many ways as possible and this is certainly one way to do it. Do you want to see photos of the box and insides? Would you like a review? Would you like a simple overview? Screenshots? It doesn't matter as I'll try to accommodate it in a structured, orderly manner. Of course, requesting something like Archon or Elite would be rather silly, since information on those is readily available and redundant--requests for coverage of common items really doesn't do anyone any good, does it? Let's try to make it interesting and useful for everyone.

In order to replace the void left by our affiliation with the now defunct Lik-Sang, we have entered into a relationship with Play-Asia. You can check it out under our "Merchandise and Special Offers" section or try it out below:

PC Magazine has a great feature up about the worst tech products of all time. It's a hall of shame for some truly miserable products. While there's only one game on the list (Disney's Lion King CD-ROM), you'll no doubt chuckle (fondly?) as you remember the items on this list. IBM's PCJr clocked in at at #13 and Microsoft Bob made it all the way to lucky #7.