Console Classix

[Nz17]

There's this video game "rental service" called Console Classix (http://www.consoleclassix.com/) and I'm wondering, "How is it?" I can see they have both free and paid offerings, the difference being that the $6/month offering gives access to newer consoles and their games while free is just for older stuff.

Is anyone here a subscriber? How is the selection? And as I'm disappointed with what GameTap has turned into, how does it compare to GT? Would it be better to stay with things like VirtualNES? From what I understand, CC is legitimate from a legal standpoint as it only allows the number of simultaneous games being played to match its inventory, so if all copies are busy then you have to wait for your turn.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

what in the blue hell?!

So lemme get this straight: This is a PAID service that provides you with rom sets to temporarily use with emulators?

Even setting aside the obvious, obvious legally issues that these people do not own the rights to any of these games, therefore have no right to sell their rom dumps, why would ANYONE give these people money?!

You can easily find entire rom dumps in torrents, as well as dozens of sites that have them available for free.

This has got to be the most ill-conceived idea I've never seen.

[Ro-J]

Is this another one of those "Netflix of Gaming" ideas? Not going to work.

[Bojay1997]

There's this video game "rental service" called Console Classix (http://www.consoleclassix.com/) and I'm wondering, "How is it?" I can see they have both free and paid offerings, the difference being that the $6/month offering gives access to newer consoles and their games while free is just for older stuff.

Is anyone here a subscriber? How is the selection? And as I'm disappointed with what GameTap has turned into, how does it compare to GT? Would it be better to stay with things like VirtualNES? From what I understand, CC is legitimate from a legal standpoint as it only allows the number of simultaneous games being played to match its inventory, so if all copies are busy then you have to wait for your turn.

I don't see how owning a physical copy of a game would give them the right to allow someone to "rent" a ROM of that game on an emulator. It doesn't fit within the traditional legal protections for rentals as it's not the actual copy being rented, it's a ROM that someone else has created that is likely not identical to the physical copy.

[treismac]

So lemme get this straight: This is a PAID service that provides you with rom sets to temporarily use with emulators?

Oh, it gets a little bit better:

"Most of the software we use is published under the gnu public license, which merely says it is free to use and to distribute." (Taken from the site's startup video posted below.)

So, basically, Console Classix is selling you rentals of roms that they claim are free to use and distribute to begin with.


http://youtu.be/Sgw-KOVHJdg?t=1m23s

EDIT:

Wait... I'm fairly sure that the "software" being mentioned are emulators, not roms. Eh. Whatever..

[Greg2600]

This site has been around for many years, and is obviously illegitimate. There is no chance they would be given licenses/permission to do this.

[bigbacon]

Why pay when things like virtualnes and what not exist.

[sloan]

You can easily find entire rom dumps in torrents, as well as dozens of sites that have them available for free.

This has got to be the most ill-conceived idea I've never seen.

Other than the fact that every torrent dump I have ever tried has infected my computer with viruses. That considered, I might be tempted to go to a source that could ensure virus-free ROM files.

[SparTonberry]

This site has been around for many years, and is obviously illegitimate. There is no chance they would be given licenses/permission to do this.

I can remember when they first launched, of course they were immediately contacted by Nintendo's legal team. Their justification was that they physically owned as many copies as they rented, claiming to be the digital equivalent of a friend letting their friend borrow their game.
Since Nintendo apparently did not pursue further legal action makes us wonder if it could stand?