I have several recent and very hard to find Arcade games to share with the community. What are the guidelines for which I can post a game? I posted a game that was released in 2005 by a now Defunct game company in the file downloads section. The posting was removed. The game was probally released to only a handful of Arcades in Japan and is made by a company which no longer exists and has no property / copyright owner as far as I know. I see games like Metroid Prime and Kill Zone posted as betas that are games that are sold commercially still in stores. By major developers and publishers who own Content rights and Property rights now I am sure still. So please share the guidelines to which I can share a ABUNDANCE of unreleased game titles for everyone to enjoy.
Since i'm the mod who removed it I will respond. What you posted was the entire image to an arcade game. Type-X hardware is still widely used through out the arcade sector. Even if the company has gone belly up or the game had a small production run, at the current time it is not acceptable to post such materials on the site. As for things like Metroid Prime/killzone, neither are full on retail releases. Both are beta to early builds of the game and are not complete games. Killzone I do find iffy since the PSP is still an active system on the market (and we have taken down other games in the past) but Prime is on a system that is no longer on the market (gamecube). If someone where to post something from say PS3, Wii or 360, then yes those would be taken down immediately (and they routinely are). I get the love for arcades, I personally have wasted tons of hours sorting out the mess that is Namco System 246/256. Just the arcade market moves at a far slower pace then consoles.
I'm not an expert but I'm struggling to see the difference. If anything, given that the big N still exists, surely it's more damaging to Nintendo to allow the Metroid iso than it could possibly be to a company that, as you say, has gone belly up. I'm not trying to start an argument! I'm just curious to know how you reached that conclusion. (note: I know very little about current gen arcade hardware and I suspect this is the point I'm missing!)
Well again in this case, we aren't posting up ISO/hhd images to commercial games where he was trying to. That in it self is a big difference. The Metroid beta are of incomplete games (some where taken from demo disc from what I can see). Generally the rule for console stuff here is current gen consoles are off limits, but even so we are not a rom site. So just posting straight up roms is not allowed. If you take a look through the download section it's pretty much betas/unreleased games/protos/demos/etc. Arcades are a far trickier business, hardware still gets used much longer then a normal console will and still are for sale much longer. Sega Naomi that came out in 98 still had games made for it in 2008/2009. Also his posting, imo, would be far more damaging to those who actually own this rare game. As people can probably just take his dump, copy it to a HDD and resell the game which will drive down the value of the game for those who have one. Bootlegs are a big problem with arcade hardware and what makes it all the worse is arcade software isn't cheap (unless it's really really common and no longer played in arcades). :shrug:
Fair point subbie, I see where you're coming from now - As you say, the rom dump is, essentially, the full game - and if it were allowed then what's to stop ppl flooding the site with roms...
In that case then, what's the point of dumping anything, where do you draw the line? Do you say that people can no longer dump Saturn, PSX, PS2, DC, Xbox, GC ISO's etc because these games can be cloned, a la the recent Shenmue fiasco, so that then in turn someone else who owns a copy of the same rare game doesn't lose money? You're basically saying you are free to dump and share stuff as long as either A: Someone doesn't lose money on it, or B: Someone doesn't copy it and make money on it. Tell me how you police that then, because once it's in the public domain no-one has control over it. You can't have it all ways.
You totally missed the point on that part. That snip wasn't a policing issue. It was a personal issue on the matter, hence the IMO (In My Opinion). Yes when people dump the data from their rare betas, they do loose value as people will now be able to play them with out having to pay a high price. There is also issues of people selling fake boots (like the shemnue issue). That is a risk someone takes when they post a dump of their stuff. The issues why his release was taken down where again because it's an HDD dump of a commercial game on a piece of hardware still widely used in arcades. The standard rule on the forums is no dumps from systems still supported in the market (ie Wii, PS3, 360).
in short nothing for machines still in sale or commercially viable, in case of doubt contact ASSEMbler.
Interesting quandary here. Type X has revisions so once a newer version comes out are the older versions fair game? If that is the case then fine but if not then the argument could be made that since the Wii is really just an upgraded Gamecube then that should in theory put GC games (like that Prime beta) in the same off limits area as other newer items. This type of stuff is a moral minefield wit no clear answers.
karsten, what about 8 and 16 bits games that are still for sale online on the PSN/XBL/Wiishop? With current consoles being able of playing previous generations of games, old titles are still sold 20 years after the original release, so I guess they are still commercially viable, aren't they?
But unlike consoles, previous revisions of arcade hw still gets widly used over it's latest iteration. Naomi 1 was used longer then Naomi 2. It becomes a cost issue and older hardware is cheaper to support then the latest. Gamecube on the other hand are no longer sold and walking into most stores, buying new gamecube games is not easy. Yet again I still think a huge issue people are forgetting is we are not a rom site. Even if say snes is ok, you don't see a topic with all the snes roms available posted. This was a commercial game being offered, not some beta or unreleased game.
Those if the same version as sold online should be a no-no... if those are alphas/betas, should be ok.
I guess a good deciding factor then could be if they still sell new the revision of hardware this game was made for. As he put it though this game was released in only a "handful" of places. That to me could be considered a limited release test (which is more in line with this site) as much as a commercial release which should be taken into account. That the developer is now defunct should also play a factor into the decision.
Some games like Trouble Witches AC were limited to only 50 pieces and are impossible to find in Arcades even in Japan. In fact many Type X games (The Non Fighters) are near impossible to aquire. I guess when Arcades are all dead then the images are fair game. Or whenever collectors stop worrying about their collection values tanking. Until then.....
