Proposed Set-Top MAME Emulation Console

BRock97 writes "An interesting post over at MAMEWorld discusses the possibility of the folks at HanaHo Games (the creators of the ArcadePC and the HotRod joystick) creating a set-top system that would run the MAME emulator and allow the user to play their collection of ROMS on a TV. From what has been posted, it sounds like the unit would be comparable to an XBox (with x86 inards), run an embedded OS (sounds like it would be Linux), and the company would fully support end user hacking of the unit (i.e. boot a DivX player). They would like to hit a target price of $200-$300 and would bundle as many ROMS as they have the right to. The company is requesting feedback." I tend to think MAME is best played in a cabinet (guess thats why I built one ;) but would love to see a mame set top box, but a custom box seems harder than simply using a dreamcast or x-box to do it. Course if they can do this with permission of the original ROM makers, this could be awesome.

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[webword]

All-In-One Arcade Console

Charge something nominal for ROMs?

[mgkimsal2]

What'd be cool is if there was an agreement between the major ROM copyright holders to allow some company to put all the old ROMs on one CD and sell, then split an amount between them. I'm thinking small amounts per CD (1-2 cents per game?) - a disc with 500 games may have to split $10 between the original copyright holders. Perhaps the administrative costs might be too high for some, but they'd be getting *something* instead of people continually 'stealing' their original work. Yes, I've got ROMs for VCS cartridges I bought, and C64 games, and even a few I never bought. If I want more, the only options I have are 'illegal' ones.

Someone give me an affordable, *legal* way to play those good old games I miss from the past, please.

Re:Charge something nominal for ROMs?

[orbital3]

Someone give me an affordable, *legal* way to play those good old games I miss from the past, please. (emphasis mine)

I agree with this completely, and this is the big reason I very rarely buy those compilation packs of old games. When someone's trying to sell me a collection of 10 old Atari games for $30 and there's only maybe 3 of the 10 I actually care about, that's not very good value for my money. Those old games were fun, but not so much that I'd want to spend $10 on each one... that adds up pretty quick when there's 10 games you want. There just isn't that much gameplay in those old games considering you can go pick up two-year-old PS2 games for $20 that give you ALOT more playtime. I'd easily drop $200 on a legit MAME romset. With 2045 unique games (3596 including clones), that comes out to about $0.10 each. Yeah, there's probably quite a few of those (maybe even most) that I wouldn't care a bit about, but I'm still getting alot better value than what's available now. And that's better for all of them because they'd at least be getting _something_ from me, while right now, they're not getting a penny.

ROM rights cost an arm and a leg...

[$$$$$exyGal]

...we would of course bundle this with as many ROMS as we can get the rights too...

Licensing ROMS is a very expensive deal, I wonder how they plan on paying for them? I'm pretty skeptical of this venture getting much further than that post (but I'm still hopeful).

--naked

Re:ROM rights cost an arm and a leg...

[Thedalek]

HanaHo is no fledgling company when it comes to the emulation community. They have successfully licensed a number of games in the past, and turned it into a profitable enough business.

Check out www.hanaho.com.

HOW much???

[darylp]

$300 is far too much money for something like this. Put it this way, over here in the UK we can buy a console that looks suspiciously like an old N64 controller which plugs straight into the TV. It holds a large amount of NES games on it. (I haven't checked the number, but there's loads.)

The price? 30 quid. That's roughly $50.

Sure, some geekier-than-thou types would get a stiffy from being able to plug Linux into their telly, but the average person won't care whether or not they get their Retro gaming fix from the NES or Arcade versions of games.

Re:HOW much???

[DarkZero]

Many people use MAME for Neo-Geo games and other such fighting games, which require at least a 400mhz processor and 256MB of RAM. Emulation nowadays is more than just Atari 2600 games and I think Hanaho realizes that. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they made it quite a bit better than that, since a 400mhz processor with 256MB of RAM won't even play Mortal Kombat properly.

Go For It

[RailGunner]

Since most "home" translations of popular classic games left a lot to be desired (Atari 2600 Pac-Man, anyone?), why not release a set-top box so people can easily relive their youth by playing classic games?

And yes, I know how easy it is to get MAME up and running, but face it. If you're reading slashdot, chances are you're in the top 5% of the technically inclined and setting up an emulator is *easy*. But, if you're mom and pop AOL who don't even know what type of sound or video card they have, let alone the processor speen and RAM, well then it becomes a more daunting task.

Though I have to wonder how much of a market there will be for this... considering how many publishers have released collections of their old games for the latest consoles already..

Re:Permission?

[Sancho]

Because they want to include as many roms as possible in the system itself. Clearly just to make and sell the unit isn't an issue, but what's a unit without games you can purchase for it/games that come with it?

New system would make sure coders get $$$.

[Viewsonic]

Unlike stealing a bunch of ROMs are you are doing on your XBox.

Re:New system would make sure coders get $$$.

[glesga_kiss]

Argh! Piracy is not stealing, not that old argument again. If it were stealing, the courts would have decided long ago that there are no need for anti-piracy laws, because the anti-thieving laws already cover it.

And as you can't buy these ROMs anywhere, how are you depriving someone of any income? Even if you were paying for them, who would the money go to? Not the original developers, I can tell you that much!

Can you say "victimless crime"? No one is hurt, so frankly I couldn't care less. I base my life around what is morally correct, not what is on the lawbooks.

MAME doesn't allow distribution of roms

[Virtex]

They would have to get the permission of the MAME developers as well. If you read the license that comes with MAME, it forbids distribution together with roms.

Re:MAME doesn't allow distribution of roms

[Drachemorder]

"They would have to get the permission of the MAME developers as well. If you read the license that comes with MAME, it forbids distribution together with roms."

I don't think that would be much of a problem if they legally bought the rights to distribute the roms. The MAME developers put that in there as a guard against being accused of copyright violations and piracy. Take away the threat of piracy lawsuits, and I imagine they'd be perfectly willing to allow MAME to be shipped in this sort of system.

Chances are... 0.0%

[Mulletproof]

"Course if they can do this with permission of the original ROM makers, this could be awesome."

Nintendo is still making money off of selling trading cards with classic games imbedded on them. How many incarniations of the Classic Gaming CD (which contains 10 games, taking up less than 10% of the disk) have you seen? Care to by the sequel?

No, they're gonna have to shell out for the permission to use those ROMs.

Sooo....

[Joe Tie.]

If it's allready running Linux, does that mean we have to change our usual plans and try to get windows to run on it?