Game King 800-in-1 board.. An illegal MAME hack??

[HoopstarsGarage]

I received a strangely suspect, unsolicited email today (read: SPAM) from some guy called Lee Denny from Victory Electronics about a new product that claims to be an 800-in-1 multi-game board... 

Apart from the numerous spelling and grammatical errors through out his email (not the least that he can't even spell the name of his own company correctly), the board looks a lot like a Mini-Atx board with a daughter board and hard drive. 
I am suspecting it is a hardware version of MAME (which would be obviously illegal).. I'm interested if anyone has any other info on it.?? 
The website is suspiciously vague which hightens my fears of something illegal or at least a scam to get my money.. 

Here is a picture of the board from his website:



Here is the email:

Dear Sirs/Madams,
Have a nice day!
I learned that you are dealing with game accessories,video or arcade game
etc.
Herewith I take this opportunity to introduce us as following:
We are a professional manufactuer which specialize in producing and
reseaching mobile and video game and spare parts.Our products already
obtained a good reputation and credit not only in the domestic markets but
also in the overesas under for more competitive prices and prompt delivery.
We are confident that we can help you expand and develop your local
markets.
I am wondering if you are interested the latest product multi game king 800
in 1.We have many kinds of spare parts in stock.eg,america
style push buttons,america style joysticks,CPU electronic coinselects. The
prices of these items are very competitive.
For more information of our products,pls kindly visit our website:www.best-acc.com
If you have any inquiry,pls don't hesitate to let me know.
Waiting for your early reply.
Yours Sincerely
Denny
Gaming accessories department
VICTORY ELECTORNIC CO.,LTD
Tel:86-20-33965758
www.best-acc.com
email:dennylee1177@hotmail.com

Your thoughts..??

Hoops

[mahuti]

My Thoughts? Why would you even be interested in in our opinions on this?? It's so totally, obviously a waste of time / money. This involves either a scam or bootlegs, no doubt.

Even if it's a legitimate company with a legitimate product... any company that will send out an email with such wildly incorrect spelling, gramatical, and other errors, is a company that is very lazy & unprofessional. A company that I wouldn't do business with. This IS the internet age, and the English language HAS kind of fallen by the wayside, but come on Denny... at least use the spell-check. I'm surprised the company isn't Victoly Electornic Co.

[Mr. Bubblehead]

That website doesn't even look real to me.  I bet if you want to order something they will send you a cashier's check for double the amount, and expect you to send the balance to a third party in the UK, etc.  Damn scammers

[Ken Layton]

I've been getting that same email every other day for the past two weeks!

Their website has no prices listed. I will definitely NOT order anything from their company.

[Level42]

I want one, I want one !


Duh.... try to get the "larger" picture of that product. The upper board looks drawn instead of a real photo.......

Ah well....another minute of my live waisted

[BobA]

A real photo of the product would probably look like this.

[MaximRecoil]

I've been getting that same email every other day for the past two weeks!

Their website has no prices listed. I will definitely NOT order anything from their company.

From the email posted above:

Dear Sirs/Madams,
Have a nice day!
I learned that you are dealing with game accessories,video or arcade game
etc

I wonder who sold you folks' email addresses to "Denny" at "VICTORY ELECTORNIC [sic] CO.,LTD".

[hypernova]

any company that will send out an email with such wildly incorrect spelling, gramatical, and other errors, is a company that is very lazy & unprofessional. A company that I wouldn't do business with. This IS the internet age, and the English language HAS kind of fallen by the wayside, but come on Denny... at least use the spell-check.

agreed. 

Duh.... try to get the "larger" picture of that product. The upper board looks drawn instead of a real photo.......

heck...i was thinking that from just the small picture.  there's far too many colors on that thing.  it looks as if the whole friggin' rainbow's on there.  even if it is real...imagine the quality programming in it, and even assuming it is stealing everything mame related...it's probably nowhere near configured correctly.  that and they probably use the absolute cheapest pc materials available.  so longevity's a question.

just checked the link...they can't even get the page title right...no wait...it is victor...not victory.

i like their slogan!  "can't image it."  looks like a ripoff of the nike swoosh too!  from their ph# they're out of country.  says china.  that explains (though doesn't forgive) their poor english skills. 

quality control, r&d and business dept have same emails.  the women's emails are hotmail accounts.  bad sign there.

"Web Design & Implementation by PC530.COM"

don't ever hire this company for web design. all those square characters...plus they tend to use IM shorthand.  (pls, etc.)

i'll bet those aren't pictures of their "factory."

i suppose that's enough ripping for me...anyone else wanna jump in?

[RandyT]

i suppose that's enough ripping for me...anyone else wanna jump in?

Well, I've tried dealing with Denny on some unrelated stuff in the past  (BTW, this thing looks both real and illegal to me, so I'd avoid trying to base a business model on them, unless you also happen to sell homemade copies of XP on the side, in which case one less infraction will probably not keep you out from under the "hammer") .

I think they are a real company.  Phony companies wouldn't make a big deal about strict order minimums.  Not sure what happens to folks who commit business fraud in the "land of red", but my guess is that it would be difficult for them to conduct business (physically) once the government found out.   They are waging a struggle of their own in the world and to cause people to lose faith in the main mechanism of that struggle, would be to hinder progress.  Doesn't seem likely that many would take that chance.

On the other hand, Denny has some serious English comprehension issues.  I can't hold that against him because my Chinese is limited to what I can remember from the back of the fortune cookie papers (read: Nothing  .  )

But this has made doing business with him or his company all but an impossibility.  Just as well as I think they are an assembler or reseller, rather than an actual producer of much of their "line". 

RandyT

[HoopstarsGarage]

I replied asking for more info.. this is the response:

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Pls kindly browse our website www.best-acc.com and let me know what you are interested in.We will offer our best price.

The following is some details about the 800 in 1.

1.Standard 28pin jamma conector,without modification,without modification.
2.High and low resolution can be swithced automaticly,which is fit for all cabinets.
3.Smart button,with function of audit,display interface can be adjusted,easy to handle.
4.Multi-coin settings,several coins in a round or one coin for several rounds can be adjusted.
5.Games can be choosed by yourself from 1-800 as you like.
6.Data restoration,never shutdown.
7.New 3D stereo game added,worthing playing.

Enclosed pls kindly find out the attached with gamelist of the 800 in 1.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Warmest regards

Denny

The games list, while extensive is lacking some of the classics like Pacman, Galaga, Donkey Kong etc etc..  I have attached the list for those that are interested.  I am still waiting on pricing and better pictures from him and will advise the group (note: this exercise is PURELY for interest sake - I will NOT be supporting any illegal rips of MAME if indeed that is what this turns out to be)

I am very interested however in the technology behind it as it is something similar that I have looked at doing, although booting and running MAME from a flashcard using mini-itx boards.. again, this is only for my OWN use in my OWN game room.

[RayB]

Welp, the list settles it. They are using MAME or an emulator that just happens to use the exact same ROM file names that MAME does.

PS: I didn't know Super Puzzle Fighter 2 was an adult game!

[HoopstarsGarage]

Ok.. I have a price on these units - $350US but with a promise for better pricing for bulk orders.

Here are a couple of pictures that were also sent - note the "insert coin" on the second one.!!

[Crazy Cooter]

It looks like it's just a Jamma adaptor mounted directly to a motherboard.  notice the interface plugs for the Jamma board.  It also looks like the fan for the cpu was too tall, so it had to have a hole in the board for mounting.  Then the hard drive just sits on top.

For $350, you can make the same thing right on your dining room table and know what quality you're getting  .

FWIW, $350 for 800 titles works out to ~$0.44 a title for license fees.  That's not including any cost for the hardware... so legal?  very very doubtful with the titles they show.