what sort of system is this?

[sealslayer]

Ive seen a few of these multiplay games systems around, it says its running on a PC in the auction advert so is it a basic mame system or another sort of system?


eBay Auction

[sealslayer]

lol thanks for tidying up my link 

[Crowquill]

I'd guess it's definitely a MAME system.

The weird thing is the games it listed. If you're going to list all the many games your system supports, why  list Son of Phoenix (a bootleg), video hustler, vastar, wiz, mx 5000, and Gyrodine. I'm guessing they (personally) were into shooters. I don't know which games were popular in the UK in the 80's, but I'm guessing these weren't them.

Also if I were putting together a cab that was "precision cut by CNC router", that is far from the cabinet design I'd go with. I also wonder what the dimensions of the cab are since it comes with a 17" monitor.  The screen shot in the last pic looks Photoshopped in. I'm guessing the image area is nowhere near that big.

[sealslayer]

I've noticed quite a few of these machines for sale over here in the UK from different retailers, I'm really curious to know what sort of a system they are using.
It would be interesting to find out how they managed to get the license for those games and how much it cost them.

[RayB]

It would be interesting to find out how they managed to get the license for those games and how much it cost them.

MAME and they didn't get any licenses. (that's my guess)

[spacies]

Im with RayB.

Someone has built there own MAME machine and now the are building them commercially.
The screen isn't horizontal as written in the advert. Its definatley vertical!

Looks like just a custom made skin on a FE.

Running a MAME machine in a commercial situation is a recipe for disaster. Wait 'til someone mcuks up all the settings via the 'TAB' box, LOL.

 

Looks like he has invested a bit of money into it too. Pity the upright isn't better looking.

[Grasshopper]

They're also sold by Gremlin Solutions.

http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/voyagerupright.htm

I'm guessing they're legitimate as Gremlin are too high profile to risk selling anything dodgy. But who knows.

The cabs are a standard jamma design that is quite common in the UK. I've seen them in many different guises over the years.

[Crowquill]

These days saying it's PC-based doesn't necessarily mean much. The MegaTouch games are PC-based. Many of the Midway games released in the last 10 years rely on PC technology.

The one thing that interested me reading the Gremlin ad is that the game list is almost totally different. The eBay listing says it can play "UP TO 40 retro classic arcade games including...". The Gremlin ad is similarly worded. This leads me to believe it's a 40-in-1 Gamebox kind of thing that you upload your own ROMs to. There'd be no licensing involved.

[slider2732]

Being from England and having to go back every few months, i can vouch for the AWFUL look of this machine too. We never had that sort of look to anything in the early 80's ! Well, apart from a kitchen fridge perhaps lol

In the UK there's many instances of people selling bootleg CD's and stuff from holdalls on street corners. When caught, it's generally up to the authorities to work out where laws have been broken. As usual, the laws on copyrights of many things are still up in the air...so, quite often the merchandise is disposed of and the people go home to replenish their supply with their CD burner.

Same with arcade related sales...noone really knows what needs a license and what doesnt.
The general feeling, from people i know in the UK, is that if you don't get caught you can do what you want.
In the USA it's like a treason issue almost, but in the UK they don't know what to prosecute with and in some circumstances don't know where the law sits. All is ever changing and fresh.....the games may well be deemed so old and the original makers so long defunct that they reckon no harm can come from one or two sales and don't know if laws of intellectual property have been trampled on.
(of course, we often have the situation of clear law breaking resulting in nothing too....speeding celebrities, vehicle and drug, often being let off and not even bothering to appear in court).

So i would think it could be a bootleg all in 1 board, but it could equally be any MAME idea they had too.

I just can't get past the cabinet design anyway lol

[sealslayer]

As you can tell from my other questions here on the board I'm searching for a legal way of being able to use ROM's, from the looks of this taken from their website It looks like they may just be using mame or something similar as they state they don't charge for the games, nice wording to get around the legal issues 
I also noticed I couldn't find anywhere on the website about the licenses for the games.


"What Games Are Included?
The games list detailed below represents the latest selection of games available on the Voyager Arcade Machine. However from time to time, we shall be adding and or deleting games from this list and reserve the right to do so, without prior notice. If any game is essential to complete an order, please double check at the time of ordering.

DONKEY KONG, DONKEY KONG JUNIOR, SCRAMBLE, SPACE INVADERS, DIG DUG, LADY BUG, 4D WARRIORS, 1942, GALAGA, GALAXIAN, FROGGER, PACMAN, PHOENIX, BOMB JACK, LUNAR RESCUE, MOON CRESTA, MR DO, PAC MAN PLUS, STARFORCE, UNIWARS, WONDER BOY, XEVIOUS, GORF, MOON PATROL, TERRA CRESTA, EYES, SON OF PHOENIX, VIDEO HUSTLER, VASTAR, WIZ, MX5000, MEGATACK, JAIL BREAK, GYRODINE, PLEIADS

Please note we do not charge for these games, they are installed free of charge.
TOP

Can I Add Other Games?
The Voyager Arcade Machine comes with the finest selection of retro arcade games available, that are installed free of charge. But, if there is an old classic game that you absolutely must have we can research the suitability of a game, find the game, install the game and check that it plays correctly. We do not charge for the game, but the work required to research, test and then implement into the Voyager system is billed at £200 per game.