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cant seem to grasp why mame is 'illegal' for commercial use
jcterzin:
So I own a couple of arcade machines I use in my shop to let clients play while they wait. They are not these two games but lets say they are TMNT and MK since they are both similar and made by the same company, and I want to convert them into just the one cabinet. (assuming I got permission from the developer of the specific frontend I would use) why would it be illegal to use mame for this process and make it used for commercial play? I own the pcbs of the original games, I just changed platforms from which they run right?
edit* reading over this, I bet it doesnt make much sense. I just think it would be easy to setup up mame in one cab and emulate the games I already own.
Havok:
Straight from the people that created Mame:
--- Quote ---Can I put an arcade cabinet running MAME in a public location?
A. No. This this a commercial use of MAME and is prohibited by the license. Even if you don't charge money, putting a machine in a public location is "operating" an arcade machine and falls under commercial rules in most locations.
--- End quote ---
If you wanted to run both games, you would have to run a switch to the actual pcbs. since you didn't state the games, if they are jamma it wouldn't be that hard.
Ginsu Victim:
--- Quote from: jcterzin on February 01, 2010, 09:06:05 pm ---They are not these two games but lets say they are TMNT and MK since they are both similar and made by the same company, and I want to convert them into just the one cabinet.
--- End quote ---
They're not by the same company.
Thenasty:
buying one of those 1million to one GAMES is considered illegal too (you know which ones).
The ones you want to be all legal are the Ultracade/Hanano machines. Usually you can find this at Costo, BJ Wholesale etc.... and WWW.
jcterzin:
your right Ginsu. my apologies to Konami for thinking that TMNT was a midway production! (blushing)
anyways, I was thinking it was an issue with the front ends. I didnt realize that the developers were actually against this. I was assuming that commercial use would have been a priority considering that finding specific dedicated cabinets with running pcbs is becoming more and more difficult for older games. How hard is it to find a good running paperboy? Its tough where I live, thats for sure. But with this program making it easy to just 'emulate' the game, that allows for it to be almost ressurected. Im just rambling, but all I am saying is that one day, 15 years from now, when I can no longer find a working CRT or isolation transformer, or whatever part I need to fix my 'true' pcb arcade machines, what will we do then? I guess just forget about the games, except for home use.
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