Locked Microgames - My Stance

Wow, I got some nasty messages about that post. Here is what I think personally:

Being able to edit locked content is bad. However, it is VERY easy to bypass the lock. I mean, stupidly easy to the point it might as well not be there. If I block locked games in CrygorTool, it will take someone with a hex editor a whole ten seconds to write an "Unlocker" program, and people will just use that with CrygorTool anyway. Heck, an Action Replay code would allow people WITHOUT access to their saves to edit locked games.

Editing locked games is bad, but let's face it: It won't be long until it happens.

Who is to blame? Nintendo, for doing next to nothing to protect your art/music/scripts. A "please don't edit me" flag is NOT protection.

Gold Carts

As the terrible picture shows, making "gold carts" isn't hard.
Values:
Cart Shape - $08
Logo - $07
Cart Color - $03
Logo Color - $00

Locked Microgames?

I've had a lot of people comment on this from both sides. DIY allows creators to lock people from editing a microgame. Effectively, its just a byte that says "Hey, I'm locked" and can just be ignored by CrygorTool. Mioedit does not allow editing of locked games, but as far as I can tell, this is only by choice of its creator.

Here's the problem. I might make CrygorTool's source available to edit (it's made in GameMaker 8, for those wondering. Not the best choice, but it is fast to work with and familiar to me, and there's no messing with .NET libraries or anything). If I release the source, it won't matter if I decide to not allow edited locked games, because someone can just edit the source to remove the check.

Ultimately, I think I will allow editing locked games, but I'll add a sort of guilt trip "Don't be a theif!" warning message. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

Edit - Poll added on the right.

Edit 2 - I have turned on anonymous posting, but I'll turn it off if there is a lot of spam.

miotool/mioedit link

http://home.usay.jp/pc/etc/nds/

Just search for 'mio' on the page. It can currently export the graphics of games and edit some basic properties.

Boss Stages Editable?

Hm, strange, this sort of looks like Jimmy T's boss stage, which isn't normally editable...

CrygorTool - A WarioWare DIY Editor

CrygorTool is a little time sink of mine. It will be able to edit microgames made in WarioWare: Do It Yourself. It is almost at the point where it matches the features of the current editor, miotool/mioedit.