GameTap Rom Rental Service to Launch

Mirkon writes "Several months ago it was revealed that Turner Broadcasting was working on a service called GameTap, where a monthly subscription gives users access to an all-you-can-download buffet of games. As indicated by the "GameTap is Coming" box, the service has not yet launched - but it appears to be gearing up for a release in the very near future. An OReillyNet blog from a few days ago tells Brian Jepson's experience with the service: "Although it's not officially launched, they are letting users trickle in." But the real signs of an impending launch are from a comprehensive Web marketing campaign. You may have already seen commercials for the Institute for Additional Dimensional Adjustment Therapy, ending with the URL whatisadat.org. This imaginative site poses as an informational/educational source about and for a disorder called "3rd Demensia" and is full of videogame references. If you look closely at the banner advertisements throughout the site, you'll find that it's only one of a network of game-spoof sites (like First Person Getaways and the Department of Gameland Security), and by exploring these various sites you're bound to find semi-hidden "PowerUp" pages that allow you to sign up for the GameTap service. Unfortunately, the service requires Windows 2000 or XP, but even Mac and Linux users can enjoy the viral marketing campaign."

Comments

Re:Skip the searching:

[Mirkon]

YMMV, but personally I was more excited about the fake websites than GameTap itself.

Who are they targetting?

[Castar]

I can see there being a market for this - less-computer-savvy people who are nostalgic about past games and want to play them again. However, I doubt that those people would be willing to pay $15 a month for the privilege - especially given the somewhat-smallish list of games available. There's also the fact that when you're playing with a keyboard, you lose a lot of the feel of the original game. I think the cheap retro joystick sets are probably competitive with this service in every way.

Anyone who is knowledgable about computers, though, will probably just set up some type of emulator - you still have to play with a keyboard, and deal with intermediate software and loading the ROMs, but you have access to many many more games.

I think the only way a download service like this can work is when it's paired with the classic controllers, and there's a minimal setup/interface to deal with. If Nintendo pulls it off, the Revolution download service could be all these things (of course, only classic Nintendo games would be available, but there are a lot of those).

Actually, the fact that _all_ NES games are missing from the GameTap list makes me think that perhaps the Revolution service will have games from all NES publishers, not just Nintendo... That makes their offering much stronger.

Re:Who are they targetting?

[Seumas]

Smallish list?!

They have (or are soon going to according to an interview by the CEO on television) something like 1500 games.

Aside from the legal aspects, if I can't acquire the various emulators and all the ROMs for less than 10 minutes worth of work per month, then the convenience is worth $15. I could also hunt and kill bison for food with a bow and arrow, but the $3/lb for meat at the store is worth the convenience.

As for the controllers - you can make your own with a simple conversion. There are instructions online for this around the net. Of course, you'd have to have a set of classic NES controllers in the first place to do this and be willing to forever alter them.