A new (potential) scam (emulation-related)

[Graham Mitchell]

This could be an inappropriate topic, and if it is, please lock and delete it, and I won't ever bring it up again. I never know what's appropriate forum conversation when it comes to roms.

I've noticed that a lot of ROM sites (particularly ones with more interesting or sought-after content) are starting to charge required membership fees to download stuff. Is anybody out there actually going along with this? What's your opinion on this? If you've actually taken the plunge with it, what was your experience like with it?

Thanks in advance guys and gals.

[GrandAmChandler]

PAY for emulation? No Thanks. I will spend my money on the real thing. Not that I dont emulate, I just am not going to pay for it...

[Flack]

First of all, emulation discussion is always allowed here. I believe only discussion of actually where to get ROMs is frowned upon. Plus, you have to have a tough skin as there will always be someone piping in with "ROMS R teh DEV3L!" regardless of the topic at hand.

There is a new business model in which people buy games, and then "rent" them to you over the 'net. If they own two copies of Excitebike, then their web site allows two people to play it (using an emulator). I don't know exactly how it keeps track of who has what downloaded, but apparently it does, and believe it or not somehow this skirts around the legality of the issue.

As far as paying for regular 'ol ROMs, I would NEVER do that, because the money is going to the wrong people. If someone has licensed Nintendo games and the money (or at least part of it) is going to Nintendo, then great, but if it's just someone who has downloaded a bunch of ROMs and is selling them, I would never pay for that. The only exception to that rule for me would be using one of those MAME traders, who will send you an entire MAME collection for the price of the discs.

I think trying to start up a business charging for ROMs is a lot like trying to charge for MP3s now, or maybe even trying to sell people air. We've had it for free for so long, it's tough to convince people that all of a sudden we should start paying for it.

[doubledownon11]

When I wanted to get a complete set of MAME roms I found a site that charged for bandwith. It was like 5-6 dollars for like 5 Gig which more than covers the complete set. Definately worth it with a download accelerator program though. A lot of places with roms now have so much crap on their site, ala popups, spyware, "vote us #1 or your rom won't work" crap. I thought the 5 bucks was money well spent.

[Promophile]

PAY for emulation? No Thanks. I will spend my money on the real thing. Not that I dont emulate, I just am not going to pay for it...

That same reasoning is the reason I'm against game downloads, which many people think are the "wave of the future".

[Xantan the Foul]

PAY for emulation? No Thanks. I will spend my money on the real thing. Not that I dont emulate, I just am not going to pay for it...

That same reasoning is the reason I'm against game downloads, which many people think are the "wave of the future".

That's me, unless I have the product solid in my hands, I'm not going to pay for it.

[Nature Boy]

I definitely wouldn't trust a site that sells roms with any of my payment information. (Credit Card/PayPal/etc). If they deal in shady products I don't see why they wouldn't have other shady business practices.

[Graham Mitchell]

When I wanted to get a complete set of MAME roms I found a site that charged for bandwith. It was like 5-6 dollars for like 5 Gig which more than covers the complete set. Definately worth it with a download accelerator program though. A lot of places with roms now have so much crap on their site, ala popups, spyware, "vote us #1 or your rom won't work" crap. I thought the 5 bucks was money well spent.

This was more or less what I was talking about, I think. They're not charging on a per-download basis. You pay a fee and you get unlimited access.

They all claim that the money is going to pay for the bandwidth and not for the ROMs (which may or may not be a legitimate statement), but I always thought that was what all the "voting" was about. And you still have to vote to get the download, so now they're probably making a profit.

[Nature Boy]

And you still have to vote to get the download, so now they're probably making a profit.

I've never had to vote. Just close the screen after it comes up - they have no way of knowing if you've actually voted or not. The last thing I want at that point is more pop up crapp...

[Blue60]

I have roms but then i use them to check out older games to see if i like it, if i do i go and buy the game, if i dont like it i delete it... but i dont pay for roms i have a list of a coupple of good site with not to many popups and junk...

[The S]

And I thought it was bad enough that a majority of ROM sites have many, many pornographic banner ads and/or make you vote for their crappy site before downloading the ROM.

[Daria]

Emulation sites are expensive to run. Especially the big ones. Most places offer roms for free but then charge customers for ISO downloads,turbo grafix/Sega CD stuff. Which yeah it's wrong, but I can completely understand. It's pretty much they either do it or shut down.

Same goes for the porn ads, they need ads to help alleviate the cost of running the site and most legtimate retailers won't put their banners on warez. Porn doesn't give a shit and thusly becomes about the only type of ad they can use.

and I'd assume the people who push the "vote fer me" shit get paid some kind of advertising bonus for being number 1. Never really figured that one out.

I'd never pay for roms, cause I'm cheap. But again I can understand the finacial situation these sites are in. I had a small RPG themed rom site for a couple years and had to shut down because my host realized I was eating up more bandwidth with downloads then any of their porn sites. I could have relocated and paid for server, but somehow the idea of paying to give other people free games didn't really appeal to me.