Sega Sells Classic Genesis ROMs On Japanese Site

Thanks to 1UP for its story revealing that Sega is opening a Japanese ROM download service for classic Genesis games, meaning that "players can download and play an array of 16-bit games on their PCs" completely legally. According to the piece, "The service charges a monthly fee of 1,000 yen (about $9) for unlimited downloads. 30 games will be available at launch, with about 10 new games joining them each month." Launch titles include Gunstar Heroes, Ecco the Dolphin, Phantasy Star II, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and "Sega plans to eventually build a library of more than 100 games, as well as community features where retro-gaming enthusiasts can meet and chat", but there's no news on a similar service in the West, and it's a little unclear whether you can keep the games after stopping monthly payments.

Comments

I liked this the first time...

[zenintrude]

when it was free and called PE2000.

Shame the site was brought down...

neat

[s33l3t]

this is a great idea, i love to play roms on my laptop at work it would be nice to have access to these sega games for about $9 a month

Amazing!

[Bagels]

Legal ROM downloads that a mainstream consumer might be interested in, at a reasonable price! Take notes, RIAA folks; *this* sort of thing is what we'd like to see for legal music downloads. Granted, there's far more than 30 pieces of music out there (this service is only offering 30 to start with), but the principle's the same.

A few questions: How are the ROMs to be played - do you have to download them each time you want to play and run them through an online emulator, or has Sega made their own emulator software? On a similar note, how does saving work - will it allow things like multiple save files and other such benefits that emulators typically offer? Are there any plans to release games from the less-popular Genesis add-ons (32x, Sega CD)? None of those are really deal-breakers, but they would certainly sweeten the deal.

Re:Amazing!

[Jeff Reed]

Knowing Sega, they've bought the rights to an existing emulator. The Sega Smash Pack CDs for PC were modified versions of the KGen emulator. I've also heard that Sega has bought the rights to one of the more finished Sega Saturn emulators out there, although it's still terribly slow.

Re:Amazing!

[cgranade]

They announced MegaCD games, but I can't wait for Knucles Chaotix to be released. That was one sweet mother of a game...

Re:Amazing!

[Dark Paladin]

I've been calling for this for years, and predicting that a day might come when it may happen.

Now, let's take it a step further.

I'd love to see a service where we could buy old CD-ROM games - mainly Console games. How about a service that holds the ISO images online, and you can buy a physical copy of the media for $20 apiece? If Sega came out with their own Sega-CD emulator and Saturn emulator for OS X/Windows (and yes, Linux - and please, no discussions on the capabilities of those emulators, we know how hard it would be to emulate a Sega Saturn system with PC technology, this is all hypothetical).

Imagine buying Panzer Dragoon RPG for $20-$40 online, have it delivered to your house, and you could play it instead of paying $150+ on eBay? And that $150 doesn't go to Sega - but if they sold old games this way, they could see money. Then people could decide "Hm - spend 3 days trying to download the ISO through Kazaa - or spend $20 to get an authentic CD?" Burn the manuals in PDF and ship those, and the only paper to print is the reciept and the mailing slip.

I could see this extended to old Playstation games even. There's a lot of money here, and while manufacturers still want you to buy the "new" stuff, I'd argue that by using this ISO based system with an emulator they could have a higher profit margin.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong - but it's a vision I'd love to see someday.

Re:Amazing!

[gl4ss]

** (and yes, Linux - and please, no discussions on the capabilities of those emulators, we know how hard it would be to emulate a Sega Saturn system with PC technology, this is all hypothetical).**

dunno about that.. if sega helped i'm pretty sure they could get something running in a month. check satourne for emulator in progress(and yes, for the lazy who don't want to check, there's screenshots).

psx games aren't that hard to come by on the net either(and the emulators are pretty sweet). so it's just a matter of providing a legal alternative for publishers/rights owners.. though most of the time they most certainly just don't care enough to get off their asses and arrange something(or don't have time/resources except in the billed by hour legal assdepartment).

Re:Amazing!

[Anonymous Coward]

The GiriGiri Project (http://girigiri.netjunkiez.org/) which turned into this (http://cyberdisc.zaq.ne.jp/for_biginner.html)

Not new

[Anonymous Coward]

BS-X for the Super Famicom. Dream Passport 3 for the Dreamcast. Nuff said.

Interesting

[neostorm]

But if there is only a library of 100 ROMs total (eventually), what's to keep subscribed when they've downloaded them all? From my experience, it doesn't take a long time to download 100 16-bit ROMs, and "community features" featuring chats and forums aren't really worth $10 a month are they? That's what we have GameFAQs.com for.

Re:Interesting

[MMaestro]

'eventually build a library of more than 100 games'

They never said they'd stop at 100.

If other companies *cough*Nintendo*cough* catch onto this, will we see the end of "remade" games such as "Namco Museum".

Rental

[moronga]

According to the little blurb here:

http://sega.jp/product/home.html

it's a rental service, so you presumably have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing the games you've downloaded. (I could be wrong, but I'm not sure what else "rental" could mean.)

They're launching the service next Thursday, so I guess we'll see.

DRM

[Orien]

Before people start blubbering about DRM and how this model is restrictive, please keep this in mind: Before this, there was NO LEAGAL WAY TO PURCHASE these games from them. I know that the subscription model doesn't really let you purchase them but ANY move at all to make availble old game ROMS that are other wise dying as old cartriges/cabinets stop working needs to be applauded and supported. Don't forget about StarRoms too. The way I see it, the first step is to let the game companies sell the ROMS in whatever protected and limited fashon they are comfortable with, and then after they see a consumer demand for it, market forces would start letting competitive companies offer better EULAs.

Re:DRM

[croddy]

there's *still* no legal way to purchase them at all, except for going to pawn shops / thrift stores / soon, antique stores ... DRM rental *isn't* a purchase any more than renting a video from blockbuster is a purchase.

Re:DRM

[0x0d0a]

The way I see it, the first step is to let the game companies sell the ROMS in whatever protected and limited fashon they are comfortable with, and then after they see a consumer demand for it, market forces would start letting competitive companies offer better EULAs

The main problem with this idea is that owners of copyrighted material have a natural monopoly over that material. Nobody else can *offer* that material but them, so there is no competition. You can get Phantasy Star from but one company.

There *are* multiple RPGs that you might play instead, but if you're, say, a Mega Man fan, Mario is not a simple substitute, you know?

Re:DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

Try ConsoleClassix. They have tons of SNES, Genesis, NES, and atari roms legally accessible to play. $5 per month, or $100 for a lifetime membership. (Or you can donate games and get months of service.)

Re:DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

They have tons of SNES, Genesis, NES, and atari roms legally accessible to play.

Bullshit. Their "Legal FAQ" is one of the most laughable things I've ever read. This is a giant snowjob, you may as well just download the ROMs from IRC or any one of the ten million free sites offering ROMs -- it'd be just as legal.

Because people choose their products by...

[SpiritFiend]

reading the EULAs Just ask Microsoft!

Emulator?

[mraymer]

Did Sega develop their own emulator for these ROMs, or are users instructed to use a particular existing one?

Myself, I find Gens to be the best (and it's open source, too). Makes me glad I hung on to all my old Sega CD games after mine up and died.

And lastly, what's a post without some piracy links? Over at www.suprnova.org there are torrents containing every Genesis game ever released in the US. Same for NES, SNES, and more.

The NES package of 700+ US titles is only 70 MB. Heh. Technology. It's funny.

Re:Emulator?

[Joe Tie.]

Myself, I find Gens to be the best (and it's open source, too).

Not only open source, but open source with a linux port in the works. Last I checked the linux port is still beta, but I've found it to work very well with a few sega cd games (once ripped to iso). Genny emus weren't all that user friendly before this, even aside from lack of support for sega cd. So I was very happy to hear of this port!

Re:Emulator?

[Anonymous Coward]

Genny emus weren't all that user friendly before this

Let's not exaggerate here, Genecyst had oustanding speed and compatibility plus the NESticle GUI ages before Gens came out. Gens' main innovations are the CD (and now 32X) support and the freely available source code.

Re:Emulator?

[Joe Tie.]

Let's not exaggerate here

Sorry about that. I noticed my error in not specifying the platform of linux only after submitting. The compatibility there was allways pretty good, but the user interfaces were either pretty lacking, or if good - the emulator itself would lack features. I can't recall which it was, but I remember one that actually had a nice GUI and configuration options - only to discover it didn't even have a full screen mode. Compared to that, gens entrance into linux seems like a breakthrough.

SITE IS STAYING UP

[ottothecow]

Gotta love the last news post... "Almost definately...there is almost nothing that can go wrong now. Stay tuned for the update of your life!"

Why online by subscription?

[WoTG]

It would be nice if they could sell licenses to the games for say, $5-10 each. I bet a few folks wouldn't mind buying legal, playable, versions of a few games from years gone by - but subscribing for a monthly fee? I suppose there might be a different market for this, perhaps this is a prelude to some cellphone or handheld game service?

Re:Why online by subscription?

[Dylan_t_p]

I'd have to dissagree I wouldn't pay $10 dollars for an old console game when I could stop by gamestop or cd tradepost and but a newer consle game for that same price, I would on the other hand pay $10 for unlimited games even though i of course would have to pay that every month. that is just me of course

Most already available in US

[Anonymous Coward]

Sega of America has had most of the same games already available for purchase in the US through RealONE arcade.

Best of all, there's no monthly fee, and you can try before you buy.
http://www.sega.com/games/pc/segaclassics.jhtml

I also remember reading somewhere that the RealONE version of these is actually using a stripped down version of Gens.

What?

[aanand]

When the hell did Sega start making good marketing decisions?