Main > Main Forum

StarROMS Interview

<< < (2/5) > >>

mahuti:
Can't resell them. 'S not allowed in the liscence. Can't give them away either. You buy em, you're stuck with them.

paigeoliver:
And then they go out of business, and you are stuck with no proof that you ever even bought your roms in the first place. I personally wouldn't spend a dime on them the way they are now.

I want them on a CD.

Wade:
I'm glad for StarRoms and I hope they do well and stay in business.

No, it isn't an end-all solution and of course most people won't buy the roms when they already have them illegally for free.

HOWEVER, this does open the door for people to sell Mame machines and assure the buyer than they can legally purchase roms, if they so desire.  I really think the legality issues scare some people away from Mame or prebuilt Mame boxes.

Wade

bigmoe:

--- Quote from: Wade on February 19, 2004, 12:47:20 pm ---HOWEVER, this does open the door for people to sell Mame machines and assure the buyer than they can legally purchase roms, if they so desire.  I really think the legality issues scare some people away from Mame or prebuilt Mame boxes.

--- End quote ---

I would suspect that at some point a prebuilt MAME box seller could set up a reselling deal with StarROMS where a buyer of the box *legally* buys the ROMS from StarROMS but hires the box seller to do the installation for them.  We see preinstalled software on boxes all the time--it's a value-add for both the hardware and the software vendors.  Seems like that would actually be a selling point for StarROMS in wooing other license owners to sign on...larger distribution channel.

Of course, just because it makes sense doesn't mean it'll succeed.

And paigeoliver has a point.  There needs to be more assurance of permanent legality than a list on a website somewhere...I like the idea, and I'll pony up (IP is the future, and hey, I make a living programming myself) but we're not there yet.

Also, considering that we are talking about software which for the most part is well past its intended life cycle, the prices are actually a bit high.  Especially for games I might only play occasionally.  We can buy emulated coinops for consoles at well under $4-6 per game (even less if I buy used), and those games are mostly the cream of the crop.  I would like to see some bulk or even subscription pricing.

Howard_Casto:
It should be noted that these liscenses are for PRIVATE use.  So it's extremely doubtful that you could sell a mame cab complete with roms as most mame cabs have a coin door, which would denote public use.  Just a thought.

Besides that, I don't think the liscense is transferrable so if the company installs them then, they can't "resell" them to their customers.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

Go to full version