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Saw a MAME cab at my neighborhood theater

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dgame:
The watchdogs follow the money. When coin-ops were in their heyday even little mom-and-pop store owners were getting fined for having out-of-date license stickers on their Ms. Pacman and Galaga.
Now that the money [and hype] is gone so are the watchdogs. Those XXX-in-1's are everywhere in the wild, it almost like they are bubble gum machines now.

WhereEaglesDare:
Thats a good point, now video poker, those are hard to find in the wild now, down here at least.  The state started the lottery so now they take all the video pokers and smash them up in to little tiny pieces.  They dont even sell them to other states.

92greenyj:
just a though here, but as an arcade manager I can see this happening. Maybe the original marquee got broken and they couldn't find a multicade replacement so they ordered a MAME one. stuff like that does happen. Kids are pretty rough on these things. I can't go a week without having to fix or replace a broken part on a game here. Most common are the lighted buttons. they seem to crack very easily. Also the shotguns for my Big Buck Hunter unit. kids drop them all day long onto the hard floor. I'm actually amazed I havent had issues with my guitar hero guitars yet. (knock on wood)

manman:

--- Quote from: nitz on May 18, 2010, 08:23:25 pm ---What I've always found interesting is that if someone were publicly selling pirated CDs or DVDs they'd probably get shutdown pretty fast - but no one seems to pay attention to stuff like this.

--- End quote ---

Well, it would definitely be illegal if it's a mame cab, but but I think the disparity you're talking about is because that analogy doesn't really work.  If someone were selling pirated games plubicly they'd probably get shut down pretty quickly as well..  having a mame cab in an arcade is more like if someone had a juke box in a bar or something that played burned cd's or illegally downloaded mp3's.  1) it's totally automated, you don't see a vendor sitting there selling things, 2) it's not immediately obvious that the IP is an copy vs. an original, and 3) theres no actual media being sold, or transfer of ownership, the buyer is just paying to use/experience the IP for a short amount of time.  The jukebox situation would be illegal, but probably take just as long to be noticed/shut down (if at all).

nitz:

--- Quote from: dgame on May 19, 2010, 12:08:09 pm ---The watchdogs follow the money. When coin-ops were in their heyday even little mom-and-pop store owners were getting fined for having out-of-date license stickers on their Ms. Pacman and Galaga.
Now that the money [and hype] is gone so are the watchdogs. Those XXX-in-1's are everywhere in the wild, it almost like they are bubble gum machines now.

--- End quote ---

Makes sense. I'm of the opinion that if stuff is no longer being sold commercially, it should just become public domain anyway. The idea of copyrights lasting 100 years or whatever is ridiculous. I'm more annoyed about the blatant ripoff of MAME than the games. If someone made their own emulator and wanted to charge for games that haven't been sold in like 20 years I'd be cool with that. 8) ;)


--- Quote from: manman on May 20, 2010, 04:33:10 pm ---
--- Quote from: nitz on May 18, 2010, 08:23:25 pm ---What I've always found interesting is that if someone were publicly selling pirated CDs or DVDs they'd probably get shutdown pretty fast - but no one seems to pay attention to stuff like this.

--- End quote ---

Well, it would definitely be illegal if it's a mame cab, but but I think the disparity you're talking about is because that analogy doesn't really work.  If someone were selling pirated games plubicly they'd probably get shut down pretty quickly as well..  having a mame cab in an arcade is more like if someone had a juke box in a bar or something that played burned cd's or illegally downloaded mp3's.  1) it's totally automated, you don't see a vendor sitting there selling things, 2) it's not immediately obvious that the IP is an copy vs. an original, and 3) theres no actual media being sold, or transfer of ownership, the buyer is just paying to use/experience the IP for a short amount of time.  The jukebox situation would be illegal, but probably take just as long to be noticed/shut down (if at all).

--- End quote ---

You're absolutely right. I guess the analogy doesn't really work. And there almost certainly are mp3/burned cd jukes out there and if it's well done, you'd never be able to tell.

Heh heh, I'm not losing any sleep over this or anything. ;) I'd seen multi boards before, it was seeing the MAME marquee in an arcade that just seemed weird. I guess it would be a little like a sign that says mp3 Jukebox on an illegal jukebox. It just seemed kinda funny to basically advertise that it's pirated games.

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