The Moral Substitute: Difference between revisions

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== Video Games ==

* The game developer Color Dreams changed its name to Wisdom Tree, and rereleased their old games with new titles and Christian themes slapped on. Some notable games that they made included ''Bible Adventures'', ''Sunday Funday'' (a rebadged version of the old Color Dreams game ''Menace Beach''), and ''Spiritual Warfare'' (a thinly disguised ''[[The Legend of Zelda|Zelda]]'' clone—not half bad, but mostly by virtue of picking a good game to rip off). These games did not carry the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, and came with special cartridges that were designed to get around the lockout chips in Nintendo's consoles.

:It is widely believed that the reason Color Dreams turned into Wisdom Tree was not out of piety, but so that they could get around Nintendo's licensing. Nintendo's primary pressure tactic was refusing to sell their games to retailers that sold unlicensed games. Christian bookstores were immune to this, as they didn't stock video games in the first place. Seeing an opportunity, the newly-renamed Wisdom Tree convinced the bookstores that their games would bring kids to God, and started selling their games to them. Another theory is that Color Dreams changed their modus operandi after Nintendo sued them for selling unlicensed games—after all, what sort of evil company (and [[Japan Takes Over the World|a Japanese one]], [[Evil Foreigner|at that]]) would [[Even Evil Has Standards|hate on a Christian game developer anyway]]?

**It is widely believed that the reason Color Dreams turned into Wisdom Tree was not out of piety, but so that they could get around Nintendo's licensing. Nintendo's primary pressure tactic was refusing to sell their games to retailers that sold unlicensed games. Christian bookstores were immune to this, as they didn't stock video games in the first place. Seeing an opportunity, the newly-renamed Wisdom Tree convinced the bookstores that their games would bring kids to God, and started selling their games to them. Another theory is that Color Dreams changed their modus operandi after Nintendo sued them for selling unlicensed games—after all, what sort of evil company (and [[Japan Takes Over the World|a Japanese one]], [[Evil Foreigner|at that]]) would [[Even Evil Has Standards|hate on a Christian game developer anyway]]?

** One Wisdom Tree game, ''Super 3D Noah's Ark'' for the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super NES]], is particularly famous among hardcore gamers for being the only unlicensed SNES cartridge released in the US. The game was essentially ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'' [[Serial Numbers Filed Off|with the guns replaced with food and the Nazis replaced with goats]]. (Apparently, gathering ''different'' animals was too much trouble for Noah.) An urban legend claims that id Software actually gave Wisdom Tree the ''Wolfenstein 3D'' code and SNES lockout codes just to spite [[Nintendo]] after the SNES port of ''Wolfenstein 3D'' was [[Bowdlerise]]d. id Software [[Jossed|denies this]], claiming that Wisdom Tree was just another Id Tech 0 engine licensee.

* [[Seanbaby]] reviewed a Christian version of ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' (entitled ''Dance Praise'') in one issue of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'', concluding with an offensive but somewhat pertinent quote: "[What I learned was that] Christian anything sucks more than regular anything."