StarROMs Closes Doors

jvm writes "StarROMs, seller of legal arcade ROM downloads for use with MAME, is closing their virtual doors. Started in October 2003, the initial StarROMs catalog offered over 60 Atari arcade games including hits like Gauntlet and Asteroids but was later trimmed due to licensing issues. In a March 2004 interview, co-founder Frank Leibly gave more details on their business plan, including how they expected to compete with the widespread illegal distribution of arcade ROMs. Has the world embraced rental models like GameTap over the download model of StarROMs?"

Comments

Re:legal downloads, or not?

[AKAImBatman]

If I were to hazard a guess, the problem has to do with the fact that there are two Ataris. "Atari" was the home system producer while "Atari Games" was the arcade game producer. (Infogrames bought the home system company and now operates under the name "Atari".) Since there are two companies, there may have been some confusion over who owned what. If Atari Games was the one who licensed with StarROMs (which would make sense) they might have run afoul of Infotari who was producing the Flashback 2.0 Plug and Play system.

Games like Pacman (Namco), Joust (Williams), and Space Invaders (Taito) were never owned by Atari, even though Atari did license the rights for home editions. StarROMs never managed to cultivate a relationship with any company other than Atari.

Can anyone shed any more light on the current situation?