Atari ROM pay site

[Saldo]

Not to dredge up on old topic, but I thought someone might like to know there is a small article on these guys in the June 2004 PC Gamer mag.

 

Basically Atari is the only rights owner that has signed on. All those ROMs that people are mentioning downloading technically are illegal if you don't actually own the game :wink: . With Starroms since you are buying the ROM it is a legal copy.

 

- Sal

[Nukey Shay]

Legal in the sense that it puts the downloader's mind at ease. Hypothetical situation: Let's assume that downloading roms becomes a HUGE crime that cops begin actively searching for...and busting offenders. How would somebody prove that the roms downloaded came from that website? Are they keeping some kind of record of who bought which roms?

[Saldo]

Good point Nukey....I would assume that they have some sort of account history on their site. I would also print that sucker out to have a record of out in case they go belly up!!!

 

I don't think we'll be seeing a crack down on illegal classic game ROMS anytime soon. It would just cost the right holders way too much to prosecute compared to the profit they are making from those old games, or any fine that they would collect.

 

- Sal

[BigFairy321]

 

at $2 buks a pop......shoking......

 

i wonder what my 20cd rom collection would be worth to replace 'legally'

 

 

[BigFairy321]

this is bullshit

 

 

they sell mame roms that are compatible with mame versions 0.77-0.79

 

( look at APB ) so my question is

 

what happens when u replace the version of mame with a newer one, rendering the roms unplayable as some internal files wont be compatible?

Upgrading mame sets is sooo tedoius that its just better to download the whole rom again, so in this case, are we gonna be paying extra for everytime a new romset upgrade becomes available?

 

 

[Classic Pac]

Personally I don't like pay roms sites, I think they can't be trusted. The reason being a friend signed on with starroms when they first started, the very first rom he downloaded from them was a virus. Crashed his computer and starroms answer was tough luck. There are plunty of rom sites out there. This being one of the best and digitpress.com a very close second. There are plunty of free roms sites out there of course I always do one thing after I download from them, I virus scan the hell out them first before I unzip them.

[Nukey Shay]

LOL

They zipped a virus?? Well, it's one way of going after rom leechers

[BigFairy321]

fark...

 

thats friggin unbelievable.....to unzip a virus from a payrom site...

its just going to be a one big mess

 

[vb_master]

How could a ROM (assuming it was not in an EXE self extractor) ZIP contain a Virus?

[Gregory DG]

How could a ROM (assuming it was not in an EXE self extractor) ZIP contain a Virus?

I had a virus (Chernobyl) in one of my ROM sets that killed my hard drive a few years back. I never thought it would be in one, but it was there.

[mechanized]

Eh, that link doesn't say a whole lot that couldn't be gleaned from the site. It still seems strange.

 

And then, why would Atari get into a deal with this site and let AtariAge continue distributing its ROMs for free? At the very least, that site is creating/testing a market, and what profits it could generate (count me a non-believer - their best bets would still be in those game collections constantly rereleased over the various formats and systems) would be influenced by these sorts of fan sites, and AtariAge is the biggest fish in that pond.

 

Sure, they're offering some Arcade ROMs there, but Arcade classics have been released on systems and PC in totally ripable formats... meaning this guy could have grabbed these ROMs himself, without Atari help. And even then, ROM proliferation even on the consoles would be of some detriment to the sales on that site.

 

This seems strange on too many levels for me to believe it, not right now, not without some official comment from Atari, which I don't think has been supplied yet.

[Sega Ages]

How could a ROM (assuming it was not in an EXE self extractor) ZIP contain a Virus?

 

Yeah I don't think it is possible unless they were using EXE self extract.