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Is there a living to be made from arcade cabs?
NiteWalker:
I don't think he mentioned anything regarding roms...
spacies:
Selling a machine with roms is no more or less legal than you having them yourself. Do you think you above the law by having them privately and think nobody will find out? Dude, you are on here saying you have a MAME machine, with roms, and your ISP address is accessible. Doh!
However, I didn't sell my machines with roms anyway. I am not stupid. I am in businees and you need to protect yourself every way you can. I just 'gave' them away on DVD instead! LOL
The whole rom issue is completly overated IMO. If the owners of the 'protected' rom images were that concerned then they would shut down sites which contain roms for FREE download and also prosecute rom burners who have paypal accounts which contain their details. Have you ever heard of anyone that has been charged with a rom 'offence'? I haven't.
Anyway, I don't build MAME machines anymore. Too much hassles.
How legal are the multi boards that are around these days that use a cut down version of MAME? Not very right? What about Clay and his multi boards or Arcadeshop? Or the 100, 200, 400, 800 in 1 boards from China which clearly show a hard drive sitting on top! If you ghost that hard drive you will even see ArcadeOS running on it!
Who cares, they should be happy we still play these games and think of how many businesses wouldn't be operating or would take a serious decline in income if we didn't have access to roms. Sh*tloads!
Website owners
Artwork suppliers
Cabinet builders
Electronics suppliers
Joystick/button suppliers
Ultimarc
Keywhiz
T-molding
Me!!!
Dont get to tied up in the legality of roms mate. Lets just be thankful to the MAME team and all the rom dumpers and 100s of others who have contributed to keeping these old games we love alive.
I :notworthy: to them all and so should every member on this forum and 1000s of others who are re-living their mis-spent youth. :cheers:
Paladin:
The cab I'm currently working on has cost me less than $30 so far, and I'm going to try and sell it for $175. Sounds like a good profit until you realize that I problably have 100 hours into it. It's amazing how much time little things can take to sort out.
spacies:
You are correct.
You can spend a LOT of time on a cabinet and not realize it.
MAME is a killer for this. Installing games, configuring games, configuring front ends, MAME itself, configuring video cards, sound cards then the PC freezes up and you have to install new HDD or RAM or mobo and still have the problem. Arrgghhhhh!!!!
I have job sheets for each machine which details time spent and money spent.
I have done lots now and can give fairly accurate estimates to customers.
$175 sounds cheap?! You won't get anywhere working for a buck and hour mate. Might wanna hurry things up a little or put your prices up! LOL.
Anyway, I can't comment on the market in the USA because I dont' live there. But here things are just getting better and better and I am the only one in this country who builds machines from scratch that I am aware of. There are a few who buy old cabs and put in new bits and sell them but they only advertise 1 every 2 months or so.
To the original poster, get the word out about what you can do. There are 1000s of people that don't know you can play every game ever made on 1 machine and when you tell them or show them they are blown away. Take your machine to markets, fairs, galas or whatever you call them over there and be seen. Even home shows or stand in the middle of malls handing out flyers. Anything!
leapinlew:
--- Quote from: spacies on September 18, 2006, 12:43:36 am ---I have just signed a deal to build 41 cocktail machines over the next 15 months for an up and coming food chain here.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: spacies on September 18, 2006, 12:43:36 am ---Anyway, I don't build MAME machines anymore. Too much hassles.
--- End quote ---
I guess a lot can happen in 24 hours. ::)
Excuuuse me for assuming that selling machines to a food chain meant that you sold machines that actually worked. I would also assume that the food chain would be using these machines to be used to generate revenue. Thats what I get for assuming I guess.... silly me.
I thought that perhaps the laws were different in New Zealand or that US Laws didn't apply or something...
It's not the "legalities" of it all that I'm concerned with... I'm more concerned with the Mame Developers and thier wishes. They are nice enough to provide a great piece of software. On the Mame Devs website they have a FAQ and one of the things they state is:
"Can I put a computer running MAME in a cabinet and charge people to use it?"
Absolutely not. According to the license you may not use MAME for commercial activity.
I was curious about your 41 cocktails that you say you signed a deal to build right before you said you don't build machines ;)
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