Whats your book's stance on ROMs and copyrights?

[Dave_K.]

So Saint, I'm just wondering how you delt the the whole copyright/ROMs and pirating business in your book?  I mean sure you can offer ways to legally obtain roms, but do you (as the author) take a hard stance on the topic?  Because you know one of the main draws of this hobby is to play as many roms as possible on your cab for free.  In the same light, did you mention anything about playing games legally using a console instead of computer/mame?

[saint]

I took a pretty conservative line on the issue, but didn't skirt around it. I pointed out what's clearly legal (like StarRoms), what's grey area (like if you own the original PCB), and what's clearly a copyright violation (essentially everything else - no such thing as a 24 hour evaluation period!). Of course, I just summarized several pages in 4 lines so there's more detail than that...

I also pointed out things you can do with a cabinet other than emulation, such as off the shelf arcade titles.

I tried to keep my personal opinion out of this part of it and simply explain my understanding of the law. Actually copyright issues took up almost as much time as the rest of the book entire. Copyrighted images. Copyrighted content that I wanted to include in the book. Copyright issues with ROMs. Copyright issues with including material on the CD. If you ever plan to write a book, add 30% more to your time estimate for such things!

I have to admit I all but skipped the concept of putting a console in the cabinet. Space was at a premium (we went 150 pages over original concept to begin with) and the focus of the book was arcade cabinets with PCs. I'd love to have done more but there simply wasn't room.

Good question

--- saint

So Saint, I'm just wondering how you delt the the whole copyright/ROMs and pirating business in your book?  I mean sure you can offer ways to legally obtain roms, but do you (as the author) take a hard stance on the topic?  Because you know one of the main draws of this hobby is to play as many roms as possible on your cab for free.  In the same light, did you mention anything about playing games legally using a console instead of computer/mame?

[eightbit]

I have to admit I all but skipped the concept of putting a console in the cabinet. Space was at a premium (we went 150 pages over original concept to begin with) and the focus of the book was arcade cabinets with PCs. I'd love to have done more but there simply wasn't room.

Leaves room for a sequel...

[Howard_Casto]

Not that I wouldn't like to see a second book, but how so?  

Page 1 put in a dreamcast

Page 2 hack an xbox and put it in.  


Boom your done.  


All pc-related hacks apply to consoles as well and there are a very very few console specific things to write about.  More than two pages obviously but definately not 500 pages worth.  

[Dave_K.]

Page 1 put in a dreamcast

Page 2 hack an xbox and put it in.  

Boom your done.  

Maybe you could get a job writing for Cliff Notes!