Me and my friend have saved on his computer about 100 arcade games. We have found that we can build a tabletop Arcade Machine (aka MAMEs) for $300 a unit and 5-6 hours of our time. These arcade machines normally sell for around 1500-3500 on the internet. We can undercut all of these faggots at half their price if we wanted to, however our only problem is the legality. First off, we really dont give a flying fuck about getting caught, because we will be selling this "door-to-door" (bars,hotel rec rooms, restaurants with mini-arcades, bowling alleys, on craigslist for rent at b-day parties etc.) and operating from a burner phone to make things clear to you that we will be selling this anyway. However I was reading that Namco is releasing 17 IP's for pacman, galaga, galaxia, etc. that could actually make what we are doing legal. Right now we are just going to offer the machines with all 123 illegally obtained arcade games on it but were pondering a legal version with just 17 of the NAMCO games plus other eminent domain arcade games on the machine. Is our "legal" version legit or is it just as illegal? Please let me know what your thoughts are /biz/. I apologize if I am on the wrong board for this, I normally go on /pol/,/liy/,/g/, and /fit/
wow guys sorry for the shitty formatting.
>>1104538
honestly it would probably be easier to go to newgrounds or something and purchase the rights to some flash games directly from the person who uploaded it. They won't be classics like Pacman but kids don't play that shit, anyway.
>>1104554
not a bad idea but that defeats the "classic arcade games" pitch we are going to give to the people buying these games.
>>1104538
This is the right board, I would also ask /g/ if they know how to work it out without getting charged out of the ass from the right holders if you want to make this perfectly legal
>>1104538
My advice would be to go the smaller number of games which are public domain (123 would confuse people in a bar anyway) you only need a handful of solid and preferably recognisable games. Avoiding copyright issues keeps things simpler and legal.
>>1104541
>me and my friend
stopped reading there
It's My friend and I, faggot.
>>1104538
You could always just sell the machines with open source games, or maybe games in public domain (not sure if there are any) on, or possibly abandonware (since that's somewhat of a grey area).
Are you going to put a coin slot onto the cabinet? That could aslo make a big difference.
I guess you could claim that you are selling the cabinet itself, and not the software included, but that probably won't work in court.
No one in your supposed target market (bars,hotel rec rooms, restaurants with mini-arcades, bowling alleys, on craigslist for rent at b-day parties etc.) is going to want to buy or rent your shitty tables or play your shitty games. The only market for these units is the nostalgia crowd, who will either want original units (with higher quality materials than your ghetto knockoff) or will make their own.
Typical biz user. Worried about the high level issues; no consideration of the basics
>>1104617
Those games are everywhere on every platform, so are their clones.
You aren't selling the games, you're selling the novelty.
>>1104908
If he's selling throughout the US, there are plenty of bars and such that would love to have something like this in their establishments but are put off by high-prices. The only demographic he truly excludes by being a knock-off is the collector market. I just don't think bars are as sensitive to authenticity as you think. In fact, most bars spit in the face of authenticity.
That said, my biggest concerns are whether they can actually produce them for $300, and if they can do so while making them look presentable. OP probably knows more than I do, but if I were an investor, I would want good damn proof he could do so.
>>1104538
Im not as worried about the legality as the fact that you havent looked into the market.
You just assume people want these?
The same diy instructions you guys use is online for anyone with a toolshed to get cracking , roms and emulators arent exactly super advanced.
The one guy I knew who bought these for himself would of course only want legit originals. Businesses would probably want the same , they dont want to get sued. But how many businesses even puzza places even have this crap anymore?
Who will you sell these too? College kids? Its a nice comversation piece next to the beer pong table but they wont pay you top dollar
>>1105718
>are put off by high-prices.
Google "used arcade machine" , he still has margin since its sweat equity but...
>>1104538
Legality is your big problem. Licensing even long forgotten stuff is often a royal pain for no reason.
Have you considered doing the hard work of building the cabinet, selling that, and oops, dropped these instructions on how to load ROMS on the floor, how clumsy of me?
>>1105884
Heh, yeah copyright law especially now that it's catching up with all things internet. But then you need support, probably won't get too many takers. Also consider the reasons they went out of style, sure retro crap has a market but its limited, smart phones, even if bar people did play the tabletops they wouldn't be paying much attention and get bored quickly.
>>1105899
Arcades went out of style because the price per game skyrocketed and number of games per location shrank even faster. There's nothing inherent to the market causing failure. It's like all those vacant storefronts that could house lots of perfectly viable businesses but don't because clowns want a fortune in rent.
id definitely pay $0.50/game for an arcade oregon trail.
>>1104538
Wouldn't work. People buy the old machines because collectors items and nostalgia. Your machine wouldn't sell for shit bro, nobody wants new arcade machines.
I don't know how legal it is but it's a bad idea.
>>1104538
just build one and see how many people respond to your offer
