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| So how good is the Mame cabinet market? |
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| Hoagie_one:
Was thinking about buying old working cabs, converting them to mame cabs and reselling them. Is there any kind of market for this thats profitable or is the market already filled with do it yourselfers? |
| severdhed:
there are a few people doing it, i dont know how much profit there is in it though. here are the problems i see with it: shipping a cabinet is not cheap or easy you cannot legally distribute mame roms, so people would have to find them on their own...that makes it difficult for the average consumer....people want something that works right out of the box. there are probably not alot of people who would want a full size arcade cabinet in their house, and if they do, then they more than likely already found this website. |
| Jack Burton:
I'll admit it, if i sold a MAME cab I'd sell it with the ROMS fully installed. Why shouldn't I? They're just going to go and download them anyway. Think what you will of me, become indignant, whatever. We all download thousands of them, and that's just as illegal as selling them. We're all pirates. I think selling a cab with the potential and intent for mass piracy is the same as selling one with the games already installed. It's like the guys who sell mod chips for consoles who claim they are only supporting the homebrew community when they know 99% of their chips will be used to play commercial games illegally. Now, on the practical side of things you might want to have a look at the David R. Foley thread stickied at the top of the foum. I'm 99% that would never happen to someone making a few MAME cabs and privately selling them loaded to the hilt with ROMS from every developer, but it does give you a little bit of pause. |
| Beretta:
there is definitely money to be made if you wanna convert cabs and sell them as mame. the question is the profit worth the effort? i suppose that would depend on a lot of factors. i've seen mame cabs for sell.. almost (95%+) always the roms are left on the machine.. thats illegal as hell. like severdhed said you can't get as much if you give them a cabinet, even if it's nice and ready to go just needing roms, people want it to go as soon as they plug it in.. give it a shot if you like, you can probably make a little money even if you do not include the roms but definatley not as much, i can at least say you wont lose money (i think) jack ever heard of the betamax trials? just because you're selling something with the potential for illegal activity does'nt make it so. and it's perfectly legal to play them if you own the original boards (working or not) it's fair use, so long as you dont also have the original board in use at the same time. so while 99% of the people out there will be playing games they dont own that does not mean there is no legitimate use. now as for downloading and playing roms you dont own, illegal? yes, but i guarantee you selling them will put you on the laws radar a lot faster, dont kid your self law enforcement has limited resources this is why they go after drug dealers, and not the users (usually) get a clue, personal use is to selling as jay walking is to armed robery. |
| TOK:
I think most people doing this are just putting 48-in-1's or xxx-in-1's in JAMMA cabs, skipping the computer part altogether. The ones near me are advertised over and over, so they're either just showing a pic of their best cab as an example, or they aren't selling any of them. |
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