Author Topic: MAME machine in a London arcade (Read 3548 times)

Grasshopper · « **on:** January 14, 2003, 06:52:15 pm »

I was in London just before Christmas and for the first time in ages I popped into an amusement arcade. Amongst all of the modern "Virtua" type cabinets, I was astonished to come across a machine running MAME.

I'm wondering whether the machine was being used legally i.e. had the arcade operator bought a license to use the Roms? And wouldn't the MAME developers get upset if they found out that their creation was being used commercially?

Has anyone else seem a MAME machine running in an arcade?

Lilwolf · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2003, 07:10:22 pm »

Nope... not at all.

1) not legal to use mame at all and make money.

2) questions about your license for the 'legal' roms running them on another platform.

but definately not 1

Brax · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2003, 07:50:58 pm »

Was it that multi arcade thing that was sold for a while? I'm afraid I can't remember the name of it but the had quite a few licenced roms and you could buy packages of them to upgrade..... They did sell it for arcade use.

OSCAR · « **Reply #3 on:** January 14, 2003, 07:58:01 pm »

http://www.ultracade.com/

There is supposedly one in a local mall arcade near me (Livonia, for those familiar with the area), but I haven't seen it myself.

Brax · « **Reply #4 on:** January 14, 2003, 08:02:37 pm »

Yup, that was it. I thought they went out of business though.

Musta been another ****Cade. Everybody uses that in their name.... Kinda hard to carve out a brand in my opinion. Maybe I'm the only one that can never remember.

OSCAR · « **Reply #5 on:** January 14, 2003, 08:04:53 pm »

They did go under last year. It looks like they are back in business (see the lower left corner, Since Jan 2003). But I don't know if it is really the same company, maybe only in name.

Brax · « **Reply #6 on:** January 14, 2003, 08:14:06 pm »

Its too bad that isn't admissable in court. It would be nice to see some jail time from that. It's people like you that will get the Mame project killed.

cdbrown · « **Reply #7 on:** January 14, 2003, 08:56:52 pm »

Quote from: Brax on January 14, 2003, 08:14:06 pm

It's people like you that will get the Mame project killed.

Like who specifically - Ultracade?

Jakobud · « **Reply #8 on:** January 14, 2003, 09:22:15 pm »

I saw a machine in the Dave and Busters in Mission Valley (San Diego). It had about 15 classics to choose from and a couple street fighter ones. It didn't really say "MAME" on it in big letters, but I'm pretty sure it was a Mame cabinet...

Yes, of course I played Robotron on it!

Mani · « **Reply #9 on:** January 15, 2003, 01:28:29 am »

cdbrown,

Brax's comment had to do with a deleted post, in which a certain forum member mentioned making money off MAME cabinets that were stationed in a public area for a week. I'm not going to name names, but I find it strange that the post was deleted.

Profiting from a MAME cabinet is not only highly illegal, but it is strongly condemned by the MAME community. Being a guilty party will get you flamed at the very, very least, and don't be surprised if said shady activity is reported to the proper authorities!

-Mani

delta88 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 15, 2003, 01:54:25 am »

the ultracade at first looks like a mame cab but it is not.. I am sure that it has some mame structure in itt somewhere though.. the ultracade usually comes with a capcom package and some others like williams.
it is all legall.... I have played a bunch of these... anyone with questions on them?

MKL · « **Reply #11 on:** January 15, 2003, 06:36:08 am »

Quote from: delta88 on January 15, 2003, 01:54:25 am

the ultracade at first looks like a mame cab but it is not.. I am sure that it has some mame structure in itt..

No doubt on that...the strange thing is that AFAIK the MAME team never had anything to say about that....hmmm, very suspect...

eightbit · « **Reply #12 on:** January 15, 2003, 10:10:23 am »

Quote from: Mani on January 15, 2003, 01:28:29 am

cdbrown,
Brax's comment had to do with a deleted post, in which a certain forum member mentioned making money off MAME cabinets that were stationed in a public area for a week. I'm not going to name names, but I find it strange that the post was deleted.

Profiting from a MAME cabinet is not only highly illegal, but it is strongly condemned by the MAME community. Being a guilty party will get you flamed at the very, very least, and don't be surprised if said shady activity is reported to the proper authorities!

Thats gotta to be about the worst thing that you could possibly brag about here.

Mani · « **Reply #13 on:** January 15, 2003, 10:11:25 am »

Quote

No doubt on that...the strange thing is that AFAIK the MAME team never had anything to say about that....hmmm, very suspect...

Common now, MAME isn't the only arcade emulator in existence. And I remember reading a mame.net post by a mamedev mentioning reasons he believes the Ultracade does not use MAME, although this memory could be purely my own imagination.

-Mani

*edit*: added quote

cdbrown · « **Reply #14 on:** January 15, 2003, 11:46:20 pm »

Mani,

Thanks for sorting that out. It seemed like Brax was having a go at Oscar which I know wouldn't happen.

*shrug*

AndyWarne · « **Reply #15 on:** January 16, 2003, 08:09:48 am »

At ATEI (Amusement Trade Show) in London last Jan, there was a company showing a really neat multi-game machine, which had everything in ROM including OS, about 20 classic games. It was not MAME at all, and completely legal. This might have been one of these. The price of the machine was about 2000 GBP, about par for a revenue-earning machine.
I'll have another look for it next Wednesday when I'm at this years show.
BTW there are lots of MAME money-earners in some countries (which shall remain nameless).

Grasshopper · « **Reply #16 on:** January 16, 2003, 03:02:53 pm »

Quote from: AndyWarne on January 16, 2003, 08:09:48 am

At ATEI (Amusement Trade Show) in London last Jan, there was a company showing a really neat multi-game machine, which had everything in ROM including OS, about 20 classic games. It was not MAME at all, and completely legal. This might have been one of these. The price of the machine was about 2000 GBP, about par for a revenue-earning machine.
I'll have another look for it next Wednesday when I'm at this years show.
BTW there are lots of MAME money-earners in some countries (which shall remain nameless).

The machine I saw was definitely running MAME because when you selected the game you wanted to play from the main menu (from a choice of about 20) the MAME startup screen briefly appeared.

What irritated me in particular about the cabinet was that if you were at the main menu and inserted a coin, the coin was not registered. Also if you exited a game to return to the main menu any credits in the machine were lost. This was explained on the machine, however at first I didn't read the instructions and I lost 50p this way. It is these rough edges that lead me to believe that the machine was probably not officially sanctioned by either the ROM copyright holders, or the MAME development team.

It was also outrageously expensive - 50p a go. Why can't retro machines have retro prices?

On the plus side the game selection menu looked very professional although for some bizarre reason the text was in spanish.

Incidentally, I'm also planning to visit the ATEI show next week. I went last year and it was excellent.

Brax · « **Reply #17 on:** January 16, 2003, 03:16:45 pm »

Sounds very odd.

Snaaake ever been to London? I'm sure his frontends are better though.

AndyWarne · « **Reply #18 on:** January 16, 2003, 04:22:23 pm »

Ah Spanish...

That would figure. Takes me back to the days when Spanish companies were churning out bootleg Space Invaders and then Galaxian machines. The PCBs in these machines were a sight to behold, they had no solder mask and so were obviously hand-soldered. They had just bare copper tracks.
They are still at it, making fake Sega Naomi cabinets etc, and looks like now turning to exploiting MAME.

magumbo · « **Reply #19 on:** January 19, 2003, 05:56:05 pm »

I worked on Ultracade and am one of the original people who helped develope it. I can assure everyone Ultracade does not work off of MAME. It has it's own embedded OS, and we have legally obtained license to distribute the 96 titles offered on Ultracade.

We went through a bad period this last year, but the orginal team is aquiring the license to Ultracade, because we believe in the product. In the next few months we will be selling Ultracade kits and Gamepacks.

You can check out our website for the latest news on Ultracade.
www.ultracade.com

If anyone has any questions concerning Ultracade please feel free to contact me at brian@hyperware.com.

Brian Matthews

eightbit · « **Reply #20 on:** January 19, 2003, 08:22:45 pm »

Quote from: magumbo on January 19, 2003, 05:56:05 pm

I worked on Ultracade and am one of the original people who helped develope it. I can assure everyone Ultracade does not work off of MAME. It has it's own embedded OS, and we have legally obtained license to distribute the 96 titles offered on Ultracade.

Brian Matthews

Thanks for clarifying that. Keep us updated of your progress.

planetjay · « **Reply #21 on:** January 19, 2003, 08:41:48 pm »

Quote from: magumbo on January 19, 2003, 05:56:05 pm

I worked on Ultracade and am one of the original people who helped develope it.
Brian Matthews

I've played one in a local sports bar. Great piece of work. Glad to see the Mr. Do! series and other great Universal games added. You should concider selling a license to play these to people. Alot of people would make they're MAME machine legal if they could. I personally have alot of arcade boards for that reason. Keep up the good work!

Grasshopper · « **Reply #22 on:** February 09, 2003, 07:22:59 am »

I revisited the arcade yesterday and had another look at the MAME machine. The following website address was printed on the control panel:

www.mga.es

So it is made by a Spanish company. They've got some nice looking machines for sale. I think the machine I saw running MAME was their Hyperplay model. If you look carefully at the picture on their website, you can see that the machine is running Donkey Kong.


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