StarROMs says Buh Bye.

[Flack]

As reported on our front page, StarROMs has closed its doors (http://www.starroms.com).

While I never expected it to catch on for home users, I really thought there might have been a market there for commercial use.

[Ed Oscuro]

Commercial use? That seems to me the sort of thing a company would rather go directly to the original companies for, or even just buy the games off eBay for a project.

Intriguing idea, but definitely a misfit.

[s1lence]

Yeah, I figured they wouldn't last too long. Most people interested in what StarROMS was offering knew of other places to get the exact same thing for free.

[NE146]

Hell I never even heard of them..

[Oobgarm]

Forgive my ignorance on the issue, but wasn't StarROMs something similar to Gametap?

If something is bountiful on the internet(and free to boot), I can see how you'd have problems running a business model that required users to pay for the particular item.

[Captain Wrong]

Hell I never even heard of them..

Same here.

[Flack]

Forgive my ignorance on the issue, but wasn't StarROMs something similar to Gametap?

Not really. Gametap is an online service that allows you to play emulated games online. You don't buy or purchase the games. It's like an online rental service, but in the end you're paying to play the games. You don't purchase anything.

StarROMs was selling arcade ROMs that run in MAME. They had licensed 40 or 50 games from Atari, and I want to say the ROMs ranged from $1 - $2.50 or so each. But after purchasing it, you downloaded it and owned it. We all know that playing games on MAME is questionable when it comes to legality, but this was 100% legal. You download MAME (which is free) and bought the officially licensed ROMs for a buck or two, and then you could play games for free.

If you think about it, it was a great deal for Atari (which is what made up most of StarROMs' inventory). If you look at something like Midway Arcade Treasures that has 10 games and sells for $20, that's $2/game and there's a lot of cost in employees, programming, packaging, advertising, etc. On this, there's essentially no cost and no support. For the same price per game, you toss a zipped ROM up on the site and allow someone to download it.

Where I thought it would catch on would be like for business owners who have an arcade machine ... you could set up a LEGAL MAME machine with those ROMs, saving a ton of money and being legit as well.

I guess in the end it didn't work out for them. Like MP3's and other digital media, I suppose it's hard to get people to start paying for something they're used to getting for free.

[googlefest1]

damn - i dont remeber hearing about them - does it realy cost them that much to keep the site going ? too bad - i like the idea

but if i would have heared about it i waould have expected it to fail aswell - they should have probbaly sold mame cabinets along with this - mabey it would have cought on with other buisnesses - sounded like it could have been a small price to pay for a 40 game machine to have in your store, bar etc

[Captain Wrong]

Where I thought it would catch on would be like for business owners who have an arcade machine ... you could set up a LEGAL MAME machine with those ROMs, saving a ton of money and being legit as well.

I would be very suprized if the download didn't include some licensing preventing that very thing. I know there are the legal ROMs machines, but ROMS for those are considerably more than a couple of dollars. Considering they have Atari games on those, they'd be undercutting themselves severly if you could download these for a few bucks and use them commercially.

I also think this was a good idea, but it's kind of like closing the barn door after the horses already ran out. It's too easy to get those ROMs for free. I'd wager anyone using MAME, which apparently this service was aiming for, knows where to find them so why should they pay?

[Kid Ice]

I also think this was a good idea, but it's kind of like closing the barn door after the horses already ran out.

Agreed. I felt the same way about legal music downloading sites, but here's the rub...those sites make it really, really easy (for a regular Joe) to download music. Yeah, you can download the roms legally, but did they make it any easier to set up MAME?

[ty896]

The market seems better suited to the GameTap model. They have a better selection of games (ie more tha just Atari) and have a revenue model that seems more likly to produce steady strems of cash.

And since GameTap doesn't use 'roms', they are not introducing casual retro gamers to the concept and thus not tempting their customers to go the illegal route.

[InsaneDavid]

The only way I ever thought StarROMs would survive was through those few companies that design, build, and sell MAME cabinets - as if purchasing StarROMs through them they could legally sell you a cabinet with games already installed.

[§ Gideon §]

Well, I'll be. The last time I heard the name StarROMs was when it premiered. I remember not entirely trusting the system they advertised: It would be too easy to just fabricate the whole legality thing...

I guess in the end it didn't work out for them. Like MP3's and other digital media, I suppose it's hard to get people to start paying for something they're used to getting for free.
Wise words.

[§ Gideon §]

Also, by show of hands, who ever purchased something from StarROMs?